Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on how many occasions in the last year powers under the Regulation of Investigators Powers Act 2000 have been used to access telephone records of journalists.

Law enforcement agencies do not routinely record the professions of individuals who have had their communications data accessed under the Regulation of Investigators Powers Act 2000 (RIPA), as there is no operational reason to do so. Furthermore, at the time that communications data is requested, the police may not be aware of the professions of those individuals that the requested data will relate to.

Communications data can only be accessed under RIPA when it is necessary for one of the statutory purposes, for example for the prevention and detection of crime and proportionate to what is sought to be achieved. As well as having to be necessary and proportionate, there are additional safeguards provided by the statutory Acquisition of Communications Data Code of Practice 2007 and independent oversight provided by the independent Interception of Communications Commissioner. We are currently updating the statutory Code, including on whether additional consideration should be given to privileged information, such as from journalists or lawyers.