Wirral Council control of 'snooper' powers attacked again (From Wirral Globe)

Wirral Council control of 'snooper' powers attacked again

2:08pm Thursday 9th April 2009

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The chairman of a committee overseeing Wirral Council's use of a controversial "snooper" law says the authority's legal experts have provided insufficent information about how it is being used.

The scrutiny committee met last Thursday to discuss the town hall's use of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa), which was originally designed as a counter-terrorism surveillance measure for the security services.

From 2007 to 2008, the legislation had been used by Wirral on 45 occasions to authorise undercover surveillance.

But, according to scrutiny chairman Cllr Leah Fraser, no data to demonstrate how often they had been used in the first quarter of 2009 was available.

Nor was there any detail of the training given to council employees who authorise Ripa investigations.

Cllr Fraser last week blasted the authority's use of the powers as "bankrolling wannabe James Bonds"

She said: "I wasn’t at all happy with the report presented to the committee.

"There were too many important items omitted and no clear information on who or what the council has been using these powers to snoop on.

"I have asked the officers to come back with a more detailed report that must show why the town hall is using powers that were established to fight terrorism are used for other issues instead.

" I also want a complete list of those council officers who have the power to order such action, what training they've had and an update on surveillance taking place this year."

The Conservative group tabled a motion that recommended that any future request to undertake Ripa surveillance, after being approved by the authorising officer, must be signed off by an appropriate council committee. However, this was rejected.

Liberal Democrat scrutiny committee member Cllr Chris Teggin said he believed the current system provided sufficient safeguards.

He said: "Having a council committee looking at every application would be another bureaucratic step in the process. I do not think there would be a good reason to do that. There is no reason why we should not trust the officers."

He said an indication of how many successful prosecutions followed a Ripa inquiry will be included in subsequent documents.

Tonight's council cabinet will also study the report.

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