Chapter EM1806
| Published date | 12 April 2016 |
| Record Number | EM1806 |
| Court | HM Revenue & Customs |
| Issuer | HM Revenue & Customs |
The Human Rights Act (HRA) 1998 enshrined the European Convention on Human Rights into UK Law. Article 8 protects a person’s right to respect for private and family life, their homes and correspondence.
The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) 2000 provides a statutory framework that allows law enforcement agencies and other public bodies including HMRC to act lawfully when carrying out surveillance without disproportionately infringing a person’s rights.
The two parts of RIPA, that you must consider during a compliance check are
- Part I Chapter II of RIPA - this governs the acquisition of communications data from Communications Service Providers (CSPs), that is, telecommunications and postal companies, internet service providers and the internet in general.
- Part II of RIPA - this governs the use of covert surveillance and covert human intelligence sources (CHIS).
Communications data is defined under three headings in RIPA 2000/S21 as
- any data created by a Communications Service Provider (CSP), or which can be caused to be created by a CSP, concerning the delivery of a communication from sender to intended recipient, including data associated with intermediate points. In the Act this is defined in S21(4)(a) and is referred to as ‘traffic data’
- any data created by a person’s use of a communications network, which is defined in S21(4)(b) of the Act and is referred to as ‘service data’
- any data held by a CSP in relation to any person they provide a communications service too. In the Act this is defined in S21(4)(c) and is referred to as ‘any other data’.
Surveillance is defined in RIPA section 48 and includes
- monitoring, observing or listening to persons, their movements, their conversations or their other activities or communications
- recording anything monitored, observed or listened to in the course of surveillance
- surveillance by or with the assistance of a surveillance device, and
- the use of human intelligence sources (CHIS).
RIPA 2000/S26(2) states that surveillance is directed if it is covert, but not intrusive, and is undertaken
- for the purposes of a specific investigation or a specific operation
- in such a manner as is...
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