Agenda item

Report of Assistant Director of Legal and Democratic Services

The Committee received the report of the Assistant Director of Legal and Democratic Services which sought the approval of the Council’s draft policy on conducting internet and social media research and investigations, and authority for creating and issuing an associated procedure.

The RIPA (Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000) Monitoring Officer (MO) highlighted that the report was a follow-up to a previous report that the Committee received 2 years prior, at which time the Committee approved the Council’s policy on carrying out covert surveillance. The follow-up report detailed a stand-alone policy which specifically dealt with online covert activity. The RIPA MO highlighted that the need for the new policy had arisen from customers’ widespread use of the internet and social media sites for business or personal use, which could be a useful source of information for officers engaged in research and investigation connected to revenue collection, regulatory or counter-fraud work.

The RIPA MO clarified that the vast majority of the Council’s use of internet did not interfere with people’s privacy and the type of activity did not need authorisation under RIPA. The new policy stated that if the nature of online activity amounted to ‘directed surveillance’, it must be done in accordance with RIPA.

The Committee had several questions for the RIPA MO in respect of the report, which included:

·         Whether or not the Internet and Social Media Research and Investigations Procedure could, once written, be shown to the Committee in the form of confidential papers. The RIPA MO understood the Committee’s interest in the document but advised that he would first need to consult with the Head of Audit and Counter Fraud as to how much of the procedure it would be appropriate  to make available to the Committee  and in what way, given the sensitivity of the techniques set out. The RIPA MO said the external training course he was attending on 25 January 2019 was on this very topic, which should enable him to report back to Committee in the appropriated manner;

·         Which officer/s were allowed to authorise   internet or social media research and/or investigative work when this involved directed surveillance. The RIPA MO responded that the overarching policy stipulated that the Council would not use covert surveillance unless it was a last resort, and that the majority of surveillance would be carried out on open source material that any member of the public could access; but that if the research or investigation did constitute directed surveillance, the procedure document would include the authorisation process. Managers would need to alert the RIPA MO, who would then refer it to one of the Council’s RIPA authorising officers for evaluation and a decision; and

·         The Chair requested that a further report come to Committee which gave more detail on the Council’s use of online covert surveillance and the procedural document mentioned above.

Resolved:

1.    That Lewes District Council’s Internet and Social Media Research and Investigations Policy as set out in draft in Appendix 1 be approved; and

2.    That the Director of Service Delivery be delegated authority by the Committee to develop, implement and ensure compliance with an Internet and Social Media Research and Investigations Procedure for Lewes District Council.