RIPA Offences: Statistics for 2008/2009

P. John made this Freedom of Information request to Home Office

The request was partially successful.

From: P. John

31 July 2009

Dear Sir or Madam,

the Interception Commissioners Report for 2008 recently published
states that "During 2008 the Tribunal made two determinations in
favour of two separate complainants. These are the second and third
occasions that the Tribunal has upheld a complaint, the first being
recorded in the final Annual Report of my predecessor, Lord Brown,
for 2005-2006."

Please will you disclose for me for each of the years 2008 and
2009;

- How many people were arrested under suspicion of offences under
RIPA?

- How many people were charged with offences under RIPA?

- How many people were cautioned for offences under RIPA?

- How many people were convicted of offences under RIPA?

- How many people were fined for offences under RIPA?

- How many people were gaoled for offences under RIPA?

Yours faithfully,

P. John

PS. The Interception Commissioners Report is here;
http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/doc...

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Home Office

4 August 2009

Attachment ResponseT13860 9.doc
72K Download View as HTML

Reference : T13860/9

Dear Mr John,

Thank you for your e-mail of 31 July in which you asked for the Home
Office to disclose any statistics it holds for 2008 and 2009 on people
arrested for offences under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act
2000 (‘RIPA’).

There are three broad types of offences under RIPA:

a) unlawful interception (such as ‘tapping’ someone’s phone without
relevant authorisation;

b) disclosure of safeguards (such as revealing without authority that
someone’s communications are being intercepted); and

c) offences relating to encryption provisions under Part III of RIPA (such
as failing to comply with a decryption notice).

I can confirm that the Home Office does not hold any statistics on a) or
b). Although we do not routinely collect or store figures on c), the
figures below were obtained by the Home Office in connection with a
Parliamentary Question earlier this year which provides some of what you
seek.

“Official statistics are not available, but we understand that there have
been 15 occasions where a s49 notice has not been complied with. To date
this has resulted in charges of non compliance being brought in 9 cases
and three convictions.”

Alternative sources of information are:

• the Ministry of Justice (which produces annual statistics on
convictions);
• the Chief Surveillance Commissioner’s Report for 2008-09 (particularly
para 4.11); and
• the Interception of Communication Commissioner’s report for 2008.

Yours sincerely,

A S COOPER
Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism

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From: P. John

4 August 2009

Dear Sir or Madam,

many thanks for the statistical information concerning compliance
with s49, that is very helpful.

Thank you also for directing me to the Ministry of Justice.

Yours faithfully,

P. John

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From: P. John

27 August 2009

Dear Sir or Madam,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of
Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Home Office's
handling of my FOI request 'RIPA Offences: Statistics for
2008/2009'.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is
available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ri...

I have been told by the MoJ that while they hold information about
convictions, they expect that the Home Office would hold data on
arrests (see the memo below);

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/16...

Please could I ask you to reconsider whether you might hold data on
the number of arrests for RIPA offences (particularly RIPA Part I)
that took place in 2008 and 2009?

many thanks,
Yours faithfully,

P. John

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Home Office

2 September 2009

Attachment ResponseT14232 9.doc
68K Download View as HTML

Reference : T14232/9

Thank you for your e-mail enquiry of 04/08/2009 11:20:45 PM

A reply is attached.

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From: P. John

5 September 2009

Dear M. Sheikh,

thank you for your reply to my request for an internal review.

I there may be some confusion; I have asked for the following
freedom of information request to be reviewed...

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ri...

Yours faithfully,

P. John

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From: Riddle Martin (IMS)
Home Office

9 September 2009

Dear Mr John

I am writing to you in response to your request for an Internal Review of
the handling of your request within your email received by the Home Office
on the 27^th August 2009

I will be conducting the internal review and the request case number is
12742. We aim to send you a response in accordance with our internal
procedures to this complaint by the 22nd October 2009. I will be in touch
again shortly, but please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any
queries about the handling of your request in the meantime.

Many Thanks

Martin Riddle | Information Access Team
Information Management Service | Financial and Commercial Group
Ground Floor | Seacole Building | Home Office | 2 Marsham Street | London
SW1P 4DF
Switchboard Number: 0207 035 4848

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

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From: Riddle Martin (IMS)
Home Office

21 October 2009

Attachment 12742 John Final Response letter.pdf
93K Download View as HTML

Dear Mr John

I write in response to your request for an internal review of case 12742.
Please find attached our findings.

Many Thanks

Martin Riddle | Information Access Team
Information Management Service | Financial and Commercial Group
Ground Floor | Seacole Building | Home Office | 2 Marsham Street | London
SW1P 4DF
Switchboard Number: 0207 035 4848

show quoted sections

Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

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From: P. John

21 October 2009

Dear Mr Riddle,

many thanks, that is most helpful.

Yours sincerely,

P. John

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