Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many phone taps have been authorised for the (a) police and (b) security services in each of the last five years.

Between 2014 – 2018, there were 15,970 targeted interception warrants (including phone taps) authorised by a Secretary of State, or for a small number of cases relating to serious crimes, by a Minister of the Scottish Government:

2014 – 2,795

2015 – 3,057

2016 – 3,007

2017 – 3,535

2018 – 3,576

Due to the method in which the data is collected, it is difficult to attribute specific numbers to the police and the security services, respectively. The figures above cover all warrant-requesting organisations across Government.

Figures for 2019 are not yet available. They will be published in the 2019 Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Annual Report.