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Surveillance warrants increases

01 September 1993

For the third year in a row the number of warrants issued for the tapping of telephones and mail-opening has increased. The annual report of the Commissioner, Sir Thomas Bingham, appointed under the 1985 Interception of Communications Act, shows the following numbers of warrants (telephone-tapping and mail-opening) have officially been issued to police forces in England and Wales and the intelligence agencies:

1989: 458 (plus Scotland: 64)
1990: 515 (plus Scotland: 68)
1991: 732 (plus Scotland: 82)
1992: 874 (plus Scotland: 92)
(No figures are given for Northern Ireland)

The figure of 874 for 1992 is the highest since the 1985 Act came into force and according to the Commissioner this is largely due to an increase of warrants issued to MI5 and the Metropolitan Police Special Branch in regard to terrorism.

In his last report, for 1991, the Commissioner said that no warrants were issued for the surveillance of "subversives" (those considered to represent a threat to parliamentary democracy or national security). The 1992 report confirms this still to be the case but adds that a "few organisations are currently the subject of interception on that ground". Warrants issued for serious crime in the UK were previously requested by the Metropolitan Police, but since April 1992 these are submitted by the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS).

The report states that the occasions on which Secretaries of State (eg: Home Office, Foreign Office) refuse applications is very few . In 1992 the complaints Tribunal completed investigations into 53 complaints by the public and in no case found that the 1985 Act had been contravened (this does not necessarily mean the complainants were not under surveillance).

Report of the Commissioner for 1992, Cm 2173, HMSO, 1993; see also Statewatch vol 1 no 4 & vol 2 no 5).