Legal news update
Surveillance and privacy—where the boundaries blur
The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA 2000) is a unique piece of law, which placed surveillance activities in English law for the first time. It came into force simultaneously with the Human Rights Act 1998 and that was no coincidence. The purpose of RIPA 2000 was to ensure that the UK complied with Art 8(2) (the right to private and family life) of the European Convention on Human Rights (the Convention) in relation to the gathering of covert material and its subsequent provision in evidence.
One of the most controversial aspects of RIPA 2000 is about to come to an end. Section 17 of the Act provides that no evidence shall be adduced and no disclosure made which “tends to suggest” that surveillance may have occurred, ie that there was an interception. The section presently prohibits the use of intercept evidence where certain sensitive facts would be revealed by, or could be inferred from, the use of such intercept evidence, ie telephone tapping. Despite the European Court of Human Rights approving this position (Jasper
