Despite press reports to the contrary, public authorities tapped just 1,435 phones and not 250,000 in a nine month period in 2006. The larger figure includes less heavily regulated requests for information about phone usage.
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The Interception of Communications Commissioner Sir Paul Kennedy sent his annual report for April to December 2006 to Prime Minister Gordon Brown last October. The PM's office has just published the non-secret half of the report.
In it, Kennedy, an appeals court judge, reveals that 253,557 requests were made for data communications in that period, around 1,000 per day. But this figure includes requests for details of calls made; not all of those requests will be for interception, which gives authorities a recording of the content of calls.
The number of warrants issued for actual interception of calls was 1,435, 1,333 by the Home Secretary and 102 by the Scottish Executive.
Since 2004 the UK's 474 local authorities have been allowed to ask for information about calls, though not the content of calls.
"Local Authorities are restricted to acquiring communications data for the purpose of preventing and detecting crime and mostly this involves the investigation of offences by the Trading Standards Service, Environmental Control and Housing Benefits Departments," he said in his report. Kennedy said that only 122 authorities made a total of 1,694requests.
Out of the total quarter of a million requests for data or interception, Kennedy said that there were 1,088 errors.
"This may seem a large number but indeed it is very small when compared to the overall number of requests for communications data," said Kennedy. "The number of errors equates to approximately 0.4% of the total."
As with past versions, Kennedy's report includes a secret annex containing details which he believes should not be made public. Kennedy also kept a secret information relating to warrants issued by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland because the possibility of giving information to those targeted would be "prejudicial to the public interest", he wrote.
Kennedy touched on two controversial political issues in his report. He said that he agreed with the intelligence community in its opposition to the use of the product of interceptions in court.
Human rights groups and prosecutors want the material to be used in order to speed trials and reduce reliance on lengthy detention without trials.
Kennedy, though, said that he was "firmly of the opinion that the benefits of any change in the law are heavily outweighed by the disadvantages".
He also said that the current exemption of MPs from any interception or telecoms surveillance was wrong, as did his predecessor. "In times like these it seems to me to be totally indefensible," he said.
Kennedy also defended the use of telecoms surveillance, saying that crime was prevented and solved by its use. "I have been impressed during my first nine months in office by how interception has contributed to a number of striking successes. It has played a key role in numerous operations including, for example, the prevention of murders, tackling large-scale drug importations, evasion of Excise duty, people smuggling, gathering intelligence both within the United Kingdom and overseas on terrorist and various extremist organisations, confiscation of firearms, serious violent crime and terrorism," he said.
"It is my view that during 2006 interception played a vital part in the battle against terrorism and serious crime, and one that would have not been achieved by other means. I am satisfied that the intelligence and law enforcement agencies carry out this task diligently and in accordance with the law."
