Spy Blog
Watching Them, Watching Us
UK Commissioners Links
Who are the people who are meant to act as checks and balances against any abuses of power by United Kingdom Government and Commerce, when they invade your privacy ?
Information Commissioner's Office
Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner has powers under the Data Protection Act 1998, and the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Underfunded, and understaffed and with no real criminal enforcement powers
Search the Register of Data Controllers
Office of the Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
DX 20819
telephone: 01625 545 745
fax: 01625 545 510
email: [email protected]
N.B. The Information Commissioner now has some regional offices as well, including one in Scotland, not to be confused with:
Scottish Information Commissioner, Kevin Dunion, the former chief executive of the environmental campaign group Friends of the Earth, was appointed by the Queen after being nominated by the Scottish Parliament. He oversees the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
Scottish Information Commissioner,
Kinburn Castle,
Doubledykes Road,
St Andrews, Fife
KY16 9DS
Telephone: 01334 464610
Fax: 01334 464611
email: [email protected]
There are several Commissioners whose offices have been set up as a result of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000:
N.B. all of these RIPA Commissioners are currently exempt from the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), by virtue of the cunning ploy by the Department for Constititional Affairs in deliberately not having formally listed them as "public authorities" under the periodically revised Schedule 1 of the Act, despite them meeting all of the statutory criteria i.e. appointed by a Minister of State (in this case the Prime Minister), and/or established by an Act of Parliament (RIPA), exactly like the the Information Commissioner, or any Chief Constavkle of a Police Force etc., who are all subject to the FOIA, with lots of exemptions which would cover anything confidential relating to the details of individual cases.
Office of Surveillance Commissioners
Rt. Hon. Sir Christopher Rose, the Chief Surveillance Commissioner, regulates Covert Surveillance according to Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, but not for CCTV etc. in general. The most open of the RIPA Commissioners, at least they have a website
Rt. Hon. Sir Christopher Rose
Chief Surveillance Commissioner
Office of Surveillance Commissioners
PO Box 29105,
London, SW1V 1ZU
Tel: 020 7828 3421
Fax: 020 7592 1788
email: [email protected]
Rt. Hon. Sir Christopher Rose took over from Rt. Hon. Sir Andrew Leggatt on 1st July 2006 - (see the appointment press release in November 2005)
Under section 61 of RIPA, there is also the post of Investigatory Powers Commissioner for Northern Ireland, who is appointed by the Prime Ministerafter consultation with the First Minister and deputy First Minister in Northern Ireland,
Northern Ireland has a Surveillance Commissioner, who was until September 2004, Rt. Hon. Sir John MacDermott, under the terms of Section 91 of the Police Act 1997. Presumably as the Northern Ireland Assembly is currently suspended, following the Stormont spy scndal affair, then so are these posts, with their duties being shred out amonst the other Commissioners.
Rt. Hon. Sir Paul Kennedy (appointed from 11th April 2006 for 3 years) the Interception of Communications Commissioner regulates the interception of phone calls, computer communications and postal letters etc. according to the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, and now seems to be set to oversee the annual million or so Communications Data requests for data from the Data Retention scheme set up under the Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act 2001. He also inspects, on a voluntary basis, the interception regimes in Her Majesty's Prisons.
Rt. Hon. Sir Paul Kennedy,
The Interception of Communications Commissioner,
c/o PO Box 33220,
London,
SW1H 9ZQ
(N.B. this is the same postal address as the Investigatory Powers Tribunal below)
The previous ICC, was the Rt. Hon. Sir Swinton Thomas.
Rt. Hon. Sir Peter Gibson the Intelligence Services Commissioner (appointed from 1st April 2006 for 3 years) has powers under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, to review the issue of warrants by the Secretary of State authorising intrusive surveillance and interference with property, directed surveillance, and the use of informers and agents (Covert Human Intelligence Sources) with respect to MI5, or GCHQ etc., but not the Police or Her Majesty's Customs and Excise etc, as well as his resposibilities and powers under the Intelligence Services Act 1994.
Neither the Cabinet Office nor the Home Office switchboards seem to know how to contact Sir Peter. The Home Office seem to have him listed under "see MI5", which is, of course, only part of his remit.
Perhaps the best contact point is, again, care of the Investigatory Powers Tribunal i.e.
Rt. Hon. Sir Peter Gibson,
Intelligence Services Commissioner,
c/o Investigatory Powers Tribunal,
PO Box 33220,
London,
SW1H 9ZQ
The previous ISC was Lord Justice Simon Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood
The Investigatory Powers Tribunal presided over by Lord Justice John Mummery, investigate complaints about the intelligence services or relating to the interception of communications. N.B. they have never upheld a complaint from the public, possibly because of the difficulty of knowing that you are under secret surveillance in the first place, let alone complaining about it, if it seems to be unjustified. The Investigatory Powers Tribunal is also currently exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.
Lord Justice Mummery (President)
Mr Justice Burton (Vice President)
Mr William Carmichael
Sir Richard Gaskell
Sheriff Principal John McInnes QC
Sir John Pringle QC
Mr Peter Scott QC
Mr Robert Seabrook QC
The Investigatory Powers Tribunal
PO Box 33220
London
SW1H 9ZQ
Tel: 0207 035 3711
The Intelligence Services Act 1994 establishes the legal basis for the Secret Service MI5, for the Secret Intelligence Service MI6 and the Government Communications Headquarters GCHQ.
It also establishes the Intelligence Services Commissioner (details under the RIPA section above).
The Act also establishes the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament, drawn from Members of the House of Commons and of the House of Lords, to "examine the expenditure, administration and policy" of the intelligence agencies listed above.
Rt. Hon. Paul Murphy MP (Chairman) (Torfaen, Labour)
Baroness Meta Ramsay of Cartvale (Labour)
Rt. Hon. Michael Ancram QC MP (Devizes, Conservative)
Rt Hon Alan Beith MP (Berwick-upon-Tweed, Liberal Democrat)
Ben Chapman MP (Wirral South, Labour)
Rt Hon George Howarth MP (Knowsley North & Sefton East, Labour)
Rt. Hon. Michael Mates MP (East Hampshire, Conservative)
Richard Ottaway MP (Croydon South, Conservative)
Ms. Dari Taylor MP (Stockton South, Labour)
Unlike other Parliamentary Committees, the official Clerk and Committee Secretariat is provided by the Cabinet Office, via whom general inquiries and correspondence can be made:
Intelligence and Security Committee
c/o Cabinet Office
70 Whitehall
London SW1A 2AS
Cabinet Office Switchboard: 020 7276 1234
Contact the individual Members of Intelligence and Security Committee care of the Houses of Parliament or the individual MPs via TheyWorkForYou or WriteToThem, which are also convenient ways of finding out who your own constituency Member of Parliament is, which is the other obvious route to initiate or to follow up any problems you may have with any major data privacy or surveillance issues.