Source: The Independent (UK), August 13, 1997
Contact: letters@independent.co.uk
Webpage: http://www.independent.co.uk/stories/A1308716.html

Police get powers to bug private homes

Patricia Wynn Davies, Legal Affairs Editor

Police will be legally allowed to enter and bug private homes and
offices for the first time when legislation passed by the previous
government is put into effect in the autumn.

Alun Michael, the Home Office minister, said safeguards in a draft code
of practice published yesterday would strike a balance between
protecting the public from criminals and the need to protect civil
liberties. The Liberal Democrats pledged to oppose the guidelines,
insisting that bugging should only used as last resort.

Bugging by police or customs of homes, offices or hotel bedrooms even
where confidential information held by lawyers, doctors, counsellors or
journalists might be affected will get statutory backing once the
code, which has been sent to 200 interested organisations, is approved
when Parliament resumes. The system has been created by the 1997 Police
Act, to replace current administrative rules on bugging, which have no
legal backing.

The code says chief police or customs officers must seek authorisation
from a commissioner a retired or serving High Court judge to conduct
surveillance in these circumstances. The provision follows criticism of
the last government's original proposals, which made no provision for
any judicial approval or warranting, and of Labour for backing them. But
in "urgent" cases officers will be able to go ahead without prior
approval as long as they notify a commissioner "as soon as reasonably
practicable."

Approval by a commissioner will likewise not be needed when the police
bug lockups, garages and vehicles.

The Liberal Democrat homeaffairs spokesman, Lord Rodgers of Quarry
Bank, said: "The appointment of commissioners to vet applications seems
certain to be inadequate to cope with the demands of a roundtheclock
police service."

The Association of Chief Police Officers welcomed the code, saying it
would enable effective action to continue to be taken against serious
and organised crime.

The Home Office is planning to appoint a chief commissioner, who will
present an annual report to the Prime Minister, and three commissioners
for England and Wales, one or two for Scotland and one for Northern
Ireland.