Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many surveillance warrants she signed (a) between 2010 and 2015 and (b) since 7 May 2015.

Section 42 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) provides that intrusive surveillance by the intelligence agencies can only be carried out under the authority of a warrant signed by a Secretary of State. Under section 42(2), RIPA also allows the Secretary of State to make a combined authorisation of intrusive surveillance and interference with property (under the Intelligence Services Act 1994).

The exercise of these powers is subject to scrutiny by the Intelligence Services Commissioner and is covered in his Annual Reports, which include statistics for the number of warrants signed by Secretaries of State. These reports, including the most recent one published on 25 June 2015, can be found at: www.intelligencecommissioner.com.

For reasons of national security, it has been the practice of successive governments not to publish more detailed breakdowns of the number of warrants authorised under section 42 of RIPA.

As the Right Honourable Member will be aware, directed surveillance authorisations, and intrusive surveillance authorisations for agencies other than the intelligence agencies, are not issued by the Secretary of State.