Issue - meetings

A report by Christian Allen, Assistant Director- Regulatory and Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) for RIPA

The Assistant Director – Regulatory and Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) for RIPA presented a report which provided Members with an update relating to the Council’s Policy and Procedures on the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA Policy), its use and to provide assurance and information. This was a joint Policy with East Lindsey District Council and followed s successful inspection by the Investigatory Powers Commissioner (IPCO) who reviewed both Councils use of the Policy under the strategic partnership agreement. The Policy remained in use and relevant across ELDC and BBC.

The most recent inspection by IPCO took place in 23^rd March 2021, following that the Policy was reviewed and updated.

The Assistant Director – Regulatory and SRO for RIPA then confirmed the following;

• The Council had not authorised any applications for direct surveillance or CHIS over the past year.
• Five names Officers in the policy with specific roles have undertaken or updated relevant training thereby ensuring knowledge was up to date across the two Councils.
• Sixty-one other members of staff in roles such as Community Safety, CCTV, Enforcement and Environmental Health had also completed a short awareness course on the basics of RIPA in order to be able to deal with queries directly or raise to the SRO if necessary.
• Data security assurances were in place and with no applications in the last year, no data security issues had arisen.
• The Policy is due to be renewed in 2024 by the SRO, who also acts as the RIPA Co-ordinator.
• There is sufficient staff to effectively carry out RIPA.

Following comments from Members regarding the use of surveillance and fly-tipping the Assistant Director and SRO confirmed that the surveillance under RIPA is covert, and that fly-tipping is an overt-surveillance issue, which was not covered by RIPA.

RESOLVED: The Committee note the report.

(Mr Pickering agreed with the decision)