Agenda item

Report of the Head of Audit and Risk Management to advise the Audit Committee of RIPA and its operation in practice within Haringey.

The Head of Audit and Risk Management, Anne Woods, presented this report to advise the Committee of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) 2000 and its operation in practice within Haringey. Further to the LGA Chairman’s recent letter to all councils in England stating that RIPA should not be used for trivial matters, it was considered appropriate that the Committee be provided with details of the operation of RIPA at Haringey and be provided with assurance that the Council’s procedures were compliant with the legislation and with LGA guidance.

Ms Woods reported that RIPA was used very infrequently within Haringey, mainly in the area of Anti-Social Behaviour. Four inspections of the Council’s use of RIPA had been carried out, and no instances had been found to be inappropriate. The Head of Audit and Risk Management was the monitoring officer for RIPA within Haringey, and every application for use of RIPA required authorisation from a named officer who had received the appropriate training in the use and application of RIPA. Although elected members might consider the Council’s general approach to using RIPA, it was confirmed that there was no member involvement in the process by which individual applications were made and approved. A register of high-level information relating to every application was maintained and hard copies of documents relating to applications were retained for a period of three years.

In response to a question from the Committee as to whether she felt that RIPA had been used excessively or inappropriately at Haringey, Ms Woods responded that she did not feel that this was the case. Ms Woods reported that the most recent inspection of the Council’s use of RIPA had determined that the Council was using it so infrequently that less frequent inspection was required. Because other means of obtaining relevant information were available to the Council, it was rarely necessary to have recourse to the use of RIPA.

Cllr Bull reported that it had been brought to the attention of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee that there had been a substantial delay in responding to a Freedom of Information request relating to details of the Council’s use of RIPA, and asked why this was. Ms Woods responded that the request had been for details of every application made over a number of years and that it had simply taken a long time to compile the volume of information requested. Ms Woods would discuss the presentation of the Council’s arrangements for the use of RIPA to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee with Cllr Bull, Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, outside the meeting.

The Committee asked whether the Council was at risk from legal action taken by individuals learning that they have been the subject of RIPA investigation, and whether there was information on the Council’s use of RIPA to monitor individuals under 18 years of age. Ms Woods responded that there was a rigorous process for applying to use RIPA, which required the applicant to specify their reasons and the manner and circumstances in which this was to be carried out. Any approved request would be strictly time-limited. Only named officers who had been specifically trained were able to approve applications, and they were required to submit detailed comments and reasons for which the application was being granted in every instance. As it was often the case that the identities and ages of those being monitored were unknown, as investigations usually focussed on specific locations rather than individuals, it was not possible to provide data on the ages of those who had been the subject of RIPA applications.

The Committee asked how many applications for the use of RIPA had been refused. Ms Woods confirmed that no applications had been refused. Both Mr Fisher and Ms Woods confirmed that, in cases where the use of surveillance was one option being considered by officers, they would discuss the information required by the officers and consider whether it could be obtained by other means which may be more cost effective and less intrusive. This approach meant that RIPA was used by the Council only in the most appropriate cases.

The Chair welcomed this opportunity for members to discuss this issue, and the Committee thanked Ms Woods for the useful information that had been provided.

On a motion by the Chair it was:

RESOLVED

i)                    That the content of the report be noted.

ii)                  That the Head of Audit and Risk Management and the Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee further discuss arrangements for the consideration of RIPA by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.