Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how often the Investigatory Powers Commissioner's Office inspects the work of the National Crime Agency; and whether any concerns have arisen during those inspections in the last three years.

IPCO carries out an inspection for each of the different powers utilised by the NCA at least once a year, though some powers are inspected more often. Following each inspection, feedback is provided in a detailed report to the public authority, with issues of note being set out in the Annual Report in the section on Law Enforcement Agencies and the Police.

The annual reports for years up until 2020 can be found on the IPCO website here: Annual Reports – IPCO. The Annual Report for 2021 has not yet been published but is due to be released before the end of the year. IPCO’s Annual Reports are subject to a rigorous cross-government clearance process to ensure no information is included which might be injurious to national security, and as such inspection reports are not released outside of this process.