Annual Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner for 2001

As in the past, the Annex to this Report contains a summary of the numbers of warrants in force at the end of 2001 and those issued throughout the course of the year by the Home Secretary and the Scottish First Minister. The great majority of warrants issued in England and Wales and Scotland remain related to the prevention and detection of serious crime. The continuing incidence of serious and organised crime and an increased facility to counter it are the main cause of the larger numbers of warrants. The significantly high level of warrants sought each year, with a corresponding level of workload for the Secretaries of State and on the part of the relevant Agencies, clearly calls for the exercise of vigilant supervision. I can report that the level of scrutiny has been and continues to be generally well maintained. However I remain concerned about the number of errors reported during the year. It is inevitable that in any detailed, technical human activity errors may occur. I have impressed on the agencies the need to eliminate errors or, at least, to reduce them to an absolute minimum. The agencies are very aware of the importance of this, and on each occasion where an error has occurred they review their procedures with a view to ensuring that the same error does not recur. Keeping errors to a minimum is one of the reasons for having the safeguards in place. I will, of course, continue to monitor the system to satisfy myself that every effort is being made to prevent such recurrences and seeking full explanations where these systems fail.

2001 Report of UK Interception Communications.pdf

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2001 Report of UK Interception Communications.pdf