Unlimited power to spy was unlawful

GIVING SPIES at the GCHQ snooping agency unfettered discretion to obtain data from mobile, internet and other communications companies was unlawful, a tribunal has found.

Under security arrangements introduced after the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001, successive Foreign Secretaries have had the power to direct GCHQ, which has a base in Scarborough, to obtain data from firms.

But the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) found that in practice, this power was unlawfully delegated to the agency, allowing spies unfettered discretion on what data to demand.

The ruling came after a legal challenge by the charity Privacy International, which said it amounted to “proof positive” of the inadequacy of the oversight system formerly in place to safeguard personal privacy.

However, the IPT found that although many of the directions – including most made from 2001 to 2012 – were unlawful, in practice GCHQ’s demands for data under the system were “clearly necessary” for national security as well as being proportionate.

The tribunal did not quash any of the directions made by Foreign Secretaries, and made no recommendations for further action.

The IPT said: “In form, the general direction was a carte blanche. In practice, it was not treated as such and there is no evidence that GCHQ ever sought to obtain communications data which fell outside the scope of data which had been sought in the submission to the Foreign Secretary.”