“This guide to Police Powers and Procedures Statistics is designed to be a useful reference guide with explanatory notes on the statistics.”
Home Office, 18th April 2013
Source: www.gov.uk/home-office
“In Catt v ACPO and others; T v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis and another [2013] EWCA Civ 192, the Court of Appeal considered two appeals regarding the powers of the police to collect and retain personal information about members of the public. Both cases turned on the application of Article 8 of the Convention; in both, the Court held that there had been an interference with the Article 8(1) right to respect for private life, and that the interference was not justified under Article 8(2).”
Panopticon, 20th March 2013
Source: www.panopticonblog.com
“Hundreds of police files on celebrities and politicians accused of sex assault
were so heavily protected that even officers investigating claims could not
access them.”
Daily Telegraph, 20th March 2013
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
“A wide range of public bodies are using private detectives to do their surveillance work, with many using security firms to dodge legal restrictions, a campaign group says.”
BBC News, 17th March 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Regina v Plunkett (Daniel): Regina v Plunkett (James): [2013] EWCA Crim 261; [2013] WLR (D) 98
“Covert recordings of conversations between defendants which had taken place whilst they were in the rear of a police van were not to be categorised as intrusive surveillance, under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, because a police van, used solely for police purposes, was not a private vehicle.”
WLR Daily, 13th March 2013
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
“Police face having to rethink their whole strategy for public demonstrations after judges ruled today that the surveillance they placed a peaceful protester under was unlawful.”
The Independent, 14th March 2013
Source: www.independent.co.uk
“Like most people who are commenting in the ether at the moment, I find disturbing one of the two principal threads of the story about undercover policing which are in the news: the forging by one or more undercover officers of sexual relationships with people in the protest groups they had infiltrated. Have a look at this report on the BBC website, for a flavour of the coverage it is receiving, and a call for tighter controls to prevent such activity in the future. And then look at the Home Affairs Select Committee interim report.”
Halsbury’s Law Exchange, 11th March 2013
Source: www.halsburyslawexchange.co.uk
“The Government should commit to a ‘fundamental review’ of UK legislation that governs surveillance practices and the interception of communications, a Parliamentary committee has said.”
OUT-LAW.com, 5th March 2013
Source: www.out-law.com
“Abuses connected with undercover police activities show that an urgent review is
needed of laws covering such work in England and Wales, MPs have said.”
BBC News, 1st March 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“The government is proposing to make it easier for the police to seize confidential material from journalists, it emerged on Wednesday night. Legal experts warned that the plans risked trampling on long-standing protections from the state.”
The Guardian, 13th February 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“A tattooist who raped a child has been jailed after his victim recorded a
conversation with him 20 years later.”
BBC News, 11th February 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“An intimate sexual relationship instigated by an undercover police officer with a member of the public for the purposes of obtaining information fell within the scope of ‘personal or other relationship with a person’ for the purposes of section 26(8) of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 so that, by section 65, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal had exclusive jurisdiction to hear a claim brought against the police under the Human Rights Act 1998.”
WLR Daily, 18th January 2013
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
“Enforcement bodies have been warned about disproportionately invading traders’
privacy when carrying out checks over the way age-restricted products are sold.”
OUT-LAW.com, 1st February 2013
Source: www.out-law.com
“Women who say they were tricked into sexual relationships with undercover police
officers will have their cases heard in secret, a judge has ruled.”
BBC News, 17th January 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“A high court judge is due to announce on Thursday morning whether police chiefs have won a controversial case involving undercover spies they infiltrated into political campaigns.”
The Guardian, 17th January 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Police powers to force offenders to give DNA samples have been used against gay men convicted of old homosexuality laws, it has been claimed.”
BBC News, 14th January 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Kinloch v HM Advocate: [2012] UKSC 62; [2012] WLR (D) 385
“Since unauthorised police surveillance of a person engaged in criminal activity in public places did not infringe that person’s right to respect for his private life under article 8 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the Lord Advocate, in adducing evidence obtained by means of such unauthorised surveillance at the trial of that person, had not acted incompatibly with his right to a fair trial under article 6(1) of the Convention, and had accordingly acted within his powers under section 57(2) of the Scotland Act 1998, as amended. However, the question whether the police had acted incompatibly with a Convention right was not a devolution issue within paragraph 1(d) of Schedule 6 to the Scotland Act 1998 and therefore could not be determined under the Supreme Court’s devolution jurisdiction.”
WLR Daily, 19th December 2012
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
“The Metropolitan police has made a landmark compensation payout over a flawed rape investigation by one of its elite Sapphire sexual assault units.”
The Guardian, 13th December 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“The government’s draft Communications Data Bill details plans to increase the amount of data gathered about the web and mobile habits of anyone in the UK.”
BBC News,
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“Civil liberties are said to have been the political glue that brought the two coalition parties together before the general election, and nothing joined them more strongly than their joint opposition to Labour’s ‘Big Brother’ database.”
The Guardian, 11th December 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
