Agenda item

To advise members of any RIPA regulatory activity in the last 12 months and any work needed to ensure arrangements remain up to date and provide assurance that our legal obligations are effectively managed (report of the Assistant Director - Regulatory and Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) for RIPA enclosed).

Consideration was given to the report of the Assistant Director – Regulatory and Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) for RIPA which advised members of any RIPA regulatory activity in the last 12 months and any work needed to ensure arrangements remained up to date and provided assurance that our legal requirements were effectively managed.

The Assistant Director – Regulatory (SRO) presented a verbal summary of the context and main points of the report, which included that:

• RIPA governed the use of covert and directed surveillance by public authorities;
• RIPA also governed how surveillance was used to gather evidence that could be utilised in pursuit of enforcement action;
• No RIPA related activity had taken place in the last 12 months or since the last audit by the Investigatory Powers Commissioners Office (IPCO) in 2017;
• The last audit was undertaken when SHDC had a shared management arrangement with Breckland Council and with whom RIPA related policy and practice was also shared;
• A review of the SHDC RIPA Policy 2017 was now required and this presented an opportunity for the development of a single RIPA policy and the sharing of responsible named officers with designated policy roles across the S&ELCP; and
• The Commissioner’s Office had been due to conduct a RIPA audit for SHDC in 2023 however this had been postponed to 2024 when a combined audit of all three Councils in the S&ELCP would be undertaken.

Members considered the report and made the following comments:

• Members asked when BBC and ELDC had most recently been audited in respect of RIPA and would any changes to sovereign constitutions be required for the creation of an aligned RIPA policy.
  • The Assistant Director – Regulatory (SRO) stated that a combined audit for BBC and ELDC had taken place in 2020;
  • Alignment of the policy across the partnership would not necessitate amendment to SHDC’s constitution; and
  • The revision of the policy sought to ensure common and consistent practices across the partnership which fulfilled the councils’ legal obligations and complied with Home Office guidance.

• Members queried the approval timescale should SHDC need to apply to the courts in order to conduct covert surveillance.
  • The Assistant Director – Regulatory (SRO) responded that the approval timescale was subject to an application process which included assessment by a designated officer and approval by the Magistrates Court. As such, the timescale could not be defined; and
  • Non-RIPA surveillance routes would be exhausted prior to any court application however the use of covert surveillance had largely diminished due to the high evidential burden necessary to satisfy judicial approval and the alternative overt surveillance technologies that had become available.
• Members asked for examples of when covert surveillance could/would be used.
  • The Assistant Director – Regulatory (SRO) gave the following examples:
    • Investigations related to fraud such as benefit claims whilst working or single property occupancy claims;
    • Investigation of early presentation of waste; and
    • Councils also used non-RIPA governed ‘overt’ surveillance techniques to encourage changes in behaviours, for example the use of visible CCTV cameras to act as a deterrent at fly-tipping hotspots.

AGREED:

That after consideration by the Governance and Audit Committee, the RIPA 2000 update be noted.