§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many requests for phone tap warrants were made by MI5 in 1996; how many were(a) agreed and (b) refused.[15721]
§ Mr. Straw[holding answer 17 November 1997]I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to him on 3 November.Official Report, column 26, where I explained that, in accordance with the practice adopted by successive Interception Commissioners, I considered that it would be prejudicial to national security to publish figures for the number of telephone warrants issued to each individual agency.
§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if phone taps authorised for numbers allocated to public phone boxes are included in the figures given to Parliament in respect of the numbers of phone taps authorised. [15704]
§ Mr. Straw[holding answer 17 November 1997]The information published in the Annual Report of the Interception Commissioner includes all telecommunications warrants issued by the Home Secretary and the Secretary of State for Scotland, irrespective of the type of telephone which is intercepted.
§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many warrants authorising phone taps related to(a) an individual and (b) two or more individuals, including organisations, for each year since 1986. [15717]
§ Mr. Straw[holding answer 17 November 1997]It would not be in the public interest to publish this information.
§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many directives have been issued to British Telecom under section 94 of the Telecommunications Act 1984 for each year since its inception.[15724]
§ Mr. Straw[holding answer 17 November 1997]Section 94(4) of the Telecommunications Act 1984 requires the Secretary of State to lay before the House a copy of every direction given under section 94 unless he is of the opinion that disclosure of the direction is against the interests of national security. No directions have been laid before Parliament. It follows that any directions which may have been issued by the Secretary of State for the Home Department could not be disclosed, in the interests of national security.
100W
§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many items of mail were legally intercepted and opened for each year since 1986; and in respect of how many persons.[15697]
§ Mr. Straw[holding answer 17 November 1997]The available information is published in the annual reports of the Interception Commissioner, which list the number of postal warrants issued each year by the Home Secretary and the Secretary of State for Scotland. Figures for the numbers of postal warrants issued by the Home Secretary in each year since 1986 are as follows:
Postal warrants issued by the Home Secretary Year Number of warrants 1985 40 1986 95 1987 34 1988 48 1989 31 1990 42 1991 62 1992 118 1993 105 1994 76 1995 87 1996 69 Total 807
§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department in what circumstances monitoring of international communications terminating within the United Kingdom is subject to approval by warrant. [15681]
§ Mr. Straw[holding answer 17 November 1997]The requirement to obtain a warrant under the Interception of Communications Act 1985 applies in relation to the interception of any communication in the course of its transmission by means of a public telecommunications system.
§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will amend the terms of the Interception of Communications Act 1985 to comply with(a) Article 13 and (b) Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.[15711]
§ Mr. Straw[holding answer 17 November 1997]We shall, in due course, bring forward proposals to amend the Interception of Communications Act 1985 so as to bring it into line with the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of HaIfordv. the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department in what circumstances calls made by prisoners from Her Majesty's prisons are monitored.[15684]
§ Ms Quin[holding answer 17 November 1997]All telephone calls made by prisoners, other than in open establishments, are recorded and are liable to be monitored. Calls made by high and exceptional risk category A prisoners are simultaneously monitored. Monitoring of other prisoners' calls takes place on a selective basis where there is justifiable suspicion of abuse, supplemented by random monitoring to the extent to which it is considered operationally necessary for the purposes of security, control and the detection of crime.
101W
§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which recommendations of the Birkett Report are not presently effective.[15727]
§ Mr. Straw[holding answer 17 November 1997]I refer the hon. Member to the report by Lord Diplock on the interception of communications in Great Britain, which was published in March 1981 (Cmnd 8191). In the fourth paragraph, Lord Diplock recorded that all of Lord Birkett's recommendations had subsequently been adopted and had been followed ever since. Following a White Paper published in 1985, the Interception of Communications Act 1985 was enacted and this Act provides the current statutory basis for lawful interception of communications.