Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the ruling by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal IPT/13/194/CH, that Amnesty International has been subjected to unlawful surveillance by the Government; and if she will make a statement.

As the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) said in its judgment of 22 June 2015, any interception that occurred in this case was lawful, necessary and proportionate.

While the IPT has found in favour of two Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), it has made clear that neither of the NGOs suffered material detriment, damage or prejudice as a result of the breaches.

Caution should be exercised against drawing conclusions from the IPT’s ruling about the target of any such interception that may have taken place. However I can neither confirm nor deny specifics relating to this or any other case.