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By Natasha Lomas, 30 January 2008 13:06

NEWS

The government's snooping watchdog has issued its latest report revealing there were more than 253,000 requests to eavesdrop on individuals' communications in the last nine months of 2006 - including 1,694 requests by local authorities.

This compares to nearly 439,000 requests between 1 January 2005 and 31 March 2006.

Hundreds of UK public bodies are authorised to intercept individuals' communications, including the Ambulance Service and Fire Authorities, the British Transport Police, HM Revenue & Customs, Secret Intelligence Service, the Security Service, the Serious Fraud Office, the Serious Organised Crime Agency, 474 local authorities and 52 police forces.

Local authorities are restricted to acquiring comms data for crime prevention and detection. Agencies most commonly requesting data at this level are Trading Standards Service, Environmental Control and Housing Benefits Departments, according to the report.

In the report, which covers the period from 11 April 2006 to 31 December 2006, the interception of communications commissioner, Sir Paul Kennedy, said "this highly intrusive investigative tool" has "contributed to a number of striking successes" in combating crime and terrorism.

He wrote: "It has played a key role in numerous operations including, for example, the prevention of murders, tackling large-scale drug importations, evasion of Excise duty, people smuggling, gathering intelligence both within the United Kingdom and overseas on terrorist and various extremist organisations, confiscation of firearms, serious violent crime and terrorism."

The report reveals 24 interception errors were reported in the last nine months of 2006 - i.e. where data from the wrong person was intercepted. While this is "a significant decrease" on the previous report, according to Kennedy, he said: "I still consider the number of errors to be too high."

There were also 1,088 acquisition and disclosure errors reported - for example billing information such as the phone numbers a person has called - representing about 0.4 per cent of the total number of requests, according to the report.

All errors were caused by human or procedural error or by technical problems, said the report - a common problem being digits in phone numbers being transposed by mistake.

Despite the mistakes and the controversial nature of eavesdropping on private communications, Kennedy is upbeat about its role in tackling crime.

He said: "It is my view that during 2006 interception played a vital part in the battle against terrorism and serious crime, and one that would have not been achieved by other means. I am satisfied that the intelligence and law enforcement agencies carry out this task diligently and in accordance with the law."

The commissioner does not, however, give his backing to intercepted comms being used as evidence in court. He writes: "At present, I am firmly of the opinion that the benefits of any change in the law are heavily outweighed by the disadvantages," adding the public will need to be convinced of its benefits before any move to change the law.

The full Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner for 2006 can be viewed here.