Security News > 2020 > December > Whistleblowers have come to us alleging spy agency wrongdoing, says UK auditor IPCO

Police forces were found by IPCO to be treating applications to use spying powers as a tickbox exercise, perhaps unsurprisingly given that these are self-authorisations rubberstamped by police managers themselves.

"To provide oversight that satisfies this judgment, IPCO reviewed the use of bulk data at GCHQ and has now incorporated the sharing of bulk data with foreign partners into its regular oversight and inspection arrangements," said IPCO in a statement.

The whistleblowing pathway, as explained by IPCO in its report, stems from section 237 of the Snoopers' Charter Investigatory Powers Act.

Though worded very obscurely, this means non-disclosure agreements and normal employment contract provisions about confidential information cannot be enforced against police workers and others who talk to IPCO's commissioners about wrongdoing in their organisations.

"Although it is important to note that IPCO does not perform an ombudsman role, IPCO's statutory information gateway enables both current and former staff of the public authorities which we oversee to raise any serious concerns they have with us," said IPCO. The Investigatory Powers Commissioner's Office functions mostly as an auditor that trawls through the use of surveillance powers by State agencies, though its judicial commissioners also provide before-the-event signoffs in some cases - and IPSO was keen to stress in its report that occasionally it does reject applications by police and other public sector bodies to spy on members of the public.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2020/12/17/ipco_annual_report/