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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml%3Bjsessionid%3DJO5SPV2B55D3ZQFIQMGSFFOAVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2008/01/29/ntap129.xml
Phones tapped at the rate of 1,000 a day
By James Kirkup, Political Correspondent
Last Updated: 2:12am GMT 31/01/2008
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Britain is in danger of becoming a "surveillance state" as authorities
including councils launch bugging operations against 1,000 people a day.
# Have your say: Should councils have the right to snoop on people?
Councils, police and intelligence services are tapping and intercepting
the phone calls, emails and letters of hundreds of thousands of people
every year, an official report said.
Phone and email communications tapped at the rate of 1,000 a day
A total of 653 state bodies are able to intercept personal calls and emails
Those being bugged include people suspected of illegal fly-tipping as
councils use little known powers to carry out increasingly sophisticated
surveillance to catch offenders.
The report, by Sir Paul Kennedy, the Interception of Communications
Commissioner, has fuelled fears that Britain is becoming a state where
private communications are routinely monitored.
It also found that more than 1,000 of the bugging operations were
flawed. In some cases, the phones of innocent people were tapped simply
because of administrative errors.
David Winnick, a Labour member of the Commons home affairs committee,
said greater legal protection was needed to prevent abuse of
surveillance powers. Britain already has more CCTV cameras per person
than any other country in the world.
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He said: "Most of these operations are needed and done for good reasons,
but the numbers do raise concerns about the safeguards we have put in
place to protect people from constant intrusion."
Referring to George Orwell's vision of a surveillance state, Mr Winnick
added: "To walk blindfolded into 1984 is not anything that anybody in
their right mind would want."
Michael Parker of NO2ID, which campaigns against ID cards, said the
figures showed the state's desire to gather more information about
people. "We are living in a surveillance state."
The report shows that in the last nine months of 2006, there were
253,557 applications to intercept private communications under
surveillance laws. It is understood that most were approved.
In that period 122 local authorities sought to obtain people's private
communications in more than 1,600 cases.
Councils are among more than 600 public bodies with the power to monitor
people's private communications.
Senior council officers are given the power to authorise surveillance in
order to catch fly-tippers, benefit fraudsters and rogue traders.
However, intelligence agencies must seek the permission of ministers
while police need approval from chief constables.
Eric Pickles, the Conservative local government spokesman, said the use
of surveillance powers against suspected fly-tippers was "completely
over the top."
Sir Paul, a senior judge with access to secret intelligence material,
also reported 1,088 incidents where public bodies broke the rules on
surveillance operations.
His report covers interception activities over a total of 264 days,
during which time new applications for interception were made at a rate
of 960 each day.
This did not include warrants personally issued by the Foreign Secretary
and the Northern Ireland Secretary - thought to be several thousand -
which are kept secret.
Each application under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act can
cover several means of communication used by one named person, or all
communications to and from a named building.
The Local Government Association defended the use of the powers against
people "ruining the countryside or trying to take the taxpayer for a ride".
Eric Metcalfe, a barrister who advises Justice, a civil rights group,
called the findings "disturbing". He added: "Putting the Home Secretary
in charge of authorising interceptions is like putting the fox in charge
of the henhouse."
Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, said: "It beggars belief
that in a nine-month period, based on these figures, the entire City of
Westminster could have had their phones tapped - yet Britain remains one
of the few Western countries that won't allow this evidence to be used
in court … to prosecute criminals and terrorists."
But Sir Paul confirmed that MI5 and other intelligence agencies remain
opposed to any change in the law.
Everybody seems to be listening in
A total of 653 state bodies — including 474 councils — have the power to
intercept private communications.
Bugging is usually carried out by MI5, MI6, GCHQ and the police and most
people are targeted on suspicion of terrorism or serious crime.
But under laws that came into force eight years ago hundreds of public
bodies can carry out surveillance.
These include the Financial Services Authority, the Ambulance Service
and local fire authorities and prison governors.
