Police unit admits 13 breaches of law on snooping

A POLICE Scotland unit is under pressure after it confirmed it had committed 13 breaches of spying laws.

The Counter Corruption Unit (CCU), already in the public eye over illegal snooping on journalists’ sources, has been involved in authorising its own spying applications – a violation of the rules.

Police forces can use the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) to obtain “communications data” during investigations, which can include details of phone records, emails and texts.

Since March last year, forces that want to use their spying powers to get to the bottom of media leaks have to obtain judicial approval from individuals “independent from operations and investigations when granting authorisations or giving notices related to those operations”.

The CCU breached this requirement in April by trying to establish if serving and former officers had leaked information to a newspaper about the original investigation into the murder of sex worker Emma Caldwell.

The Herald asked Police Scotland how many times RIPA applications had been handled by a “designated person” since March 2015.

It initially refused to say but released figures after an appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner.

The force stated: “Thirteen of the Counter Corruption Unit applications for communications data were handled by a designated person who worked in the CCU at the time the application was submitted.”

It added that “internal structures and processes were reviewed and adjusted to ensure the independence of Designated Persons in respect of CCU investigations”.