Supreme Court to consider whether mass data collection by GCHQ violates rights
Reading time: 1 minute
The question of whether s67(8) of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 precludes judicial review of a decision of the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) will be considered by the Supreme Court in December.
The appellant, Privacy International, made a complaint to the IPT that GCHQ had been conducting unlawful computer network exploitation activity (ie hacking).
One issue of the complaint was whether, if and to the extent that GCHQ had been carrying on computer hacking of the appellant, it had done so pursuant to a lawful warrant issued by the Secretary of State.
The IPT gave a judgment holding that section 5 of the Intelligence Services Act 1994, which empowers the Secretary of State to grant warrants authorising only “specified” acts in respect of “specified” property, permits the grant of general warrants authorising a broad class of possible activity in respect of a broad class of possible property.
On 9 May 2016, the appellant commenced judicial review proceedings seeking to challenge the IPT’s decision.
On 2 February 2017, the Divisional Court decided that the judicial review claim was precluded by s67(8) of RIPA. The appellant’s appeal to the Court of Appeal was dismissed.
Share this article:
Subscribe to our newsletter to not miss articles like this one:
SUBSCRIBE
