Security News > 2022 > January > GCHQ was rebuked for ignoring spy law safeguards as pandemic hit Britain

Former foreign secretary Dominic Raab rebuked GCHQ for secretly halting internal compliance audits that ensured the spy agency was obeying the law, a government report has revealed - while just 0.06 per cent of spying requests made by Britain's public sector were refused by its supposed overseer.

Explaining how GCHQ's COVID excuse "Deviated from our expectations," IPCO said: "The IPC and the Foreign Secretary made clear to GCHQ that, in future, they expect GCHQ to inform them of any changes relevant to the handling of warranted data."

This extraordinarily low rejection rate calls into question IPCO's independence of public-sector spies, summoning the 2018 spectre of a judge telling spy agency lawbreakers he was "Anxious to assist" them despite being repeatedly lied to.

Hundreds of paranoid police workers were covertly recording their every phone call with ordinary people "To record by way of anticipation anything that might happen." IPCO slapped the two forces on the wrist and told them not to do it again.

The agency's poor record of legal compliance continues from previous years, with IPCO uncovering double the number of errors when compared with foreign spy agency MI6 and GCHQ. Year-on-year trends weren't a reliable comparison because of the effects of COVID on auditing and reporting, said IPCO. The Investigatory Powers Commissioner himself, retired senior judge Sir Brian Leveson, has held his post since 2020, having opened his tenure by approving the mass interception of British criminal suspects' instant messages by foreign police forces.

If IPCO is really concerned with upholding the law or even protecting the general public, it needs to show more teeth.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/01/10/ipco_report_2020/