UK: Highest ever phone-tapping figures
01 May 1999
The number of warrants issued in England and Wales for telephone-tapping and mail-opening in 1998 was 1,763 - the highest figure since records began. Indeed it is a higher yearly figure than any during the Second World War (1939-45) including the previous top figure for 1940 - 1,682.
The number of warrants for tapping in Scotland in 1998, 268 is the highest since they were first published in 1967. This is a rise from 256 in 1997 and 228 in 1996. Only one warrant in Scotland was issued for mail-opening.
The number of warrants, signed by the Home Secretary, in England and Wales issued in 1996 for intercepting "telecommunications" was 1,646 - beating the previous record in 1996 and the highest since records began in 1937.
In his annual report for 1996 the Commissioner, Lord Nolan, acknowledged that "telecommunications" warrants cover: "all forms of telecommunications including telephone, facsimile, telex and other data transmissions whereby the information is communicated via a public telecommunications system". In his report for 1998 the Commissioner obliquely refers to "a substantial increase in interception" being due to "an increase in the interception facilities available". The over fifty percent rise in "tapping" warrants from 1,073 in England and Wales in 1996 to 1,646 in 1998 suggests that this may be due to the interception of e-mail traffic or it could reflect a larger number of individuals or organisations under surveillance - each of the warrants issued can cover more than one phoneline if they are issued to cover an organisation or group.
The figures only give - as usual - part of the picture. Under Section 2 of the Interception of Communications Act 1985 warrants to intercept communications are meant to be applied for by the Metropolitan Police Special Branch, the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS), Customs and Excise, Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the Security Service (MI5), the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and Scottish police forces. However, the number of warrants issued by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (RUC and MI5) and the Foreign Secretary (MI6 and GCHQ) are not published, nor are the numbers issued in response to a request from another state. Nor, of course, will "bug and burgle" figures resulting from new powers under the Police Act 1997 (see Statewatch vol 6 no 6).
Total figures for warrants issued, England and Wales 1989-1998:
1989 458
1990 515
1991 732
1992 874
1993 998
1994 947
1995 997
1996 1,142
1997 1,456
1998 1,763
Total figures for Scotland 1989-1996:
1989 64
1990 66
1991 82
1992 92
1993 122
1994 100
1995 138
1996 228
1997 256
1998 268
In 1995 Lord Nolan's report said that "the number of warrants issued under the counter-subversion head remains very small", for 1996 it said: "there are no warrants in force under the counter-subversion head". In the 1997 report it says: "no warrants [were] in force.. during 1997 for counter-subversion." The 1998 report, for the first time in three years, by its silence on this issue gives no such assurance.
One issue the Commissioner had to confront during 1998 was the unlawful interception of "pager" messages: "The police and HM Customs and Excise have always made extensive operational use of their capacity to intercept radio pagers.." Between 1985 and 1992 this method of surveillance was subject to warrants issued by the Home Secretary. Then this practice was stopped on the "legal advice" that pagers were not subject to the 1985 Act and instead Customs and Excise relied on section 5 of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949 and the police on section 9 of the 1984 Police and Criminal Evidence Act (which allows them to ask for and generally obtain "production orders" in the Crown Court).
On 22 January 1998 a judge at Worcester Crown Court refused a police app