Use of RIPA

Dear Sir or Madam,

In light of recent reports on the use of RIPA by councils in
England and Wales, I am writing to enquire on the use of the RIPA
law by the Council. Specifically:

1) How many Council employees have the power to authorise the use
of RIPA, and what is their designated grade?

2) How many times has RIPA powers been used in the last 5 years? On
what dates were the requests made and by whom?

3) For what purposes was RIPA used, what type of investigation was
being undertaken? What was the motivation for using RIPA? What were
the outcomes of the RIPA requests? Please provide details for the
past 5 years.

4) Over the past 5 years, by each year, how many people have been
prosecuted as a result of evidence gathered through the use of RIPA
sanctioned investigations, and how many of these prosecutions have
led to convictions?

For all of the above where possible please provide the ethnicity
and gender of the people concerned who were under the RIPA
sanctioned investigations.

Yours faithfully,

Ian Duncan