Fundamental overhaul needed to "badly out of date" RIPA regime, says JUSTICE

The government’s proposed amendments to the Regulation of Investigatory Proceedings Act 2000 (RIPA) are “nowhere near enough to bring Britain’s surveillance laws in line with human rights standards”, JUSTICE has claimed.

In a report, Freedom from Suspicion, the human rights organisation called for a fundamental overhaul of the country’s surveillance laws. It said reform was necessary to protect the right of individual privacy “from unnecessary, unwarranted and unchecked state intrusion”.

The report comes just days before the House of Lords will debate (on 8 November) the Protection of Freedoms Bill. The Bill includes a number of amendments to RIPA, including judicial authorisation for the use of directed surveillance and communications data requests by local authorities.

The report’s findings were:

• Since RIPA came into force in 2000, there have been 20,000 interception warrants, more than 30,000 authorisations for directed surveillance, and more than 2.7m requests for communications data. “The true extent of surveillance activity since 2000 is unknown because full numbers have never been published,” JUSTICE claimed
• Of the nearly three million surveillance decisions taken by public bodies under RIPA since 2000, “fewer than 5,000 (or 0.5%) were approved by a judge”
• The “highly secretive” Investigatory Powers Tribunal, the main complaints body under RIPA, has only dealt with 1,100 complaints since RIPA began. In the last decade, it has only upheld ten complaints.

JUSTICE also claimed that RIPA was poorly-drafted and lacked sufficient safeguards against abuse.

“This has contributed to the failure of the Metropolitan police to properly investigate phone-hacking, the illegal recording of privileged conversations between lawyers and clients, the spread of CCTV cameras, and the use of snooping powers by local authorities,” it said.

Eric Metcalfe, the author of the JUSTICE report, said: “From phone hacking to council snooping, RIPA has not only failed to prevent unnecessary surveillance but also encouraged it. Little more than a decade old, it is already badly out of date.”

Angela Patrick, the organisation’s Director of Human Rights Policy, added: “Tinkering around the edges of RIPA is no longer enough. The time has come for Parliament to undertake root-and-branch reform of Britain’s surveillance powers and provide genuinely effective safeguards against abuse.”

The report can be downloaded here.