Use of RIPA

The request was successful.

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

Nailah Ukaidi, Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council

Dear Mr Duncan

Thank you for your request for information, relating to the use of
RIPA.

In accordance with provisions within the Freedom of Information Act
2000, the council will respond to your request within 20 working
days saying whether we have the information that you want, and if
there will be any charges.

If for any reason we cannot provide you with the information we
will tell you why. If we need to clarify your request, we will
contact you again.

In the meantime, if you need to contact me about your enquiry
please do so quoting the above reference number using the contact
details below.

(On behalf of ) Nailah Ukaidi Principal Performance Officer (
Information & Records ) Customer Focus & Intelligence (FoI, DPA &
EIR) Corporate Performance Management Walsall Council The Civic
Centre Darwall Street Walsall WS1 1TP Tel: 01922 653585 Fax: 01922
614210

"The information in this message must be regarded as confidential
and is intended for the addressee only unless explicitly stated. If
you have received this message in error it must be deleted and the
sender notified. The views expressed in this message are personal
and not necessarily those of Walsall Council unless explicitly
stated. Please be aware that emails sent to or received from
Walsall Council may be intercepted and read by the council to
ensure compliance with council policies or regulatory obligations,
or for the purposes of essential maintenance or support of the
email system. You should also be aware that any email may be
subject of a request under Data Protection, Freedom of Information
or Environmental Information legislation and therefore could be
disclosed to third parties".

Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Duncan,

Further to your request about the council’s use of RIPA, I write to
apologise for the delay in providing  you with a full reply. This is
partly due to our obligation to consider the application of relevant
exemptions and also due to the need to collate the information requested
over a long period of time for a range of services.

I anticipate that I will be able to provide you will a full reply within
the next 10 working days.

Regards

Nailah Ukaidi

Principal Performance Officer ( Information & Records )

Customer Focus & Intelligence  (FoI, DPA & EIR)

Corporate Performance Management

Walsall Council

The Civic Centre

Darwall Street

Walsall

WS1 1TP

Tel: 01922  653585

Fax: 01922  614210

cid:image001.jpg@01C859E8.D31C9690

"The information in this message must be regarded as confidential and is
intended for the addressee only unless explicitly stated. If you have
received this message in error it must be deleted and the sender notified.
The views expressed in this message are personal and not necessarily those
of Walsall Council unless explicitly stated. Please be aware that emails
sent to or received from Walsall Council may be intercepted and read by
the council to ensure compliance with council policies or regulatory
obligations, or for the purposes of essential maintenance or support of
the email system. You should also be aware that any email may be subject
of a request under Data Protection, Freedom of Information or
Environmental Information legislation and therefore could be disclosed to
third parties".

Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council

6 Attachments

From: 
Sent: 03 July 2007 09:28
To: 
Subject: RIPA Surv Summary Example.xls
All are RIPS as you requested
                     
Walsall MBC        
Anti-Social Behaviour Unit        
       
Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000        
Surveillance Details        
       
Authorisation     Renewal   Cancellation  
Confidential Info
Ref Type Date Officer Investigation Urgency Y/N Auth'd Date Auth'd likely to be
No Detail Y/N By By obtained               
Y/N
1 Directed 01/04/05                
2 Directed 11.05.05                
3 Directed 27/05/05                
4 Directed 10.06.05                
5 Directed 01.07.05                
6 Directed 01.07.05                
7 Directed 02.07.05                
8 Directed 13.07.05                
9 Directed 22.07.05                
10 Directed 25.07.05                
11 Directed 26.07.05                
12 Directed 07/09/05                
13 Directed 07/09/05                
14 Directed 13/09/05                
15 Directed 13.09.05                
16 Directed 14.09.05                
17 Directed 14.09.05                
18 Directed 26.09.05                
19 Directed 04.10.05                
20 Directed 07.10.05                
21 Directed 14/10/05                
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33 Directed 22/03/06                
34 Directed 24/03/06                
Authorisation     Renewal   Cancellation  
Confidential Info
Ref Type Date Officer Investigation Urgency Y/N Auth'd Date Auth'd likely to be
No Detail Y/N By By obtained               
Y/N
35 Directed 26/04/06                
36 Directed 0/05/06                
37 Directed 05/05/06                
38 Directed 11/05/06                
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