Mayor Announces New Limits to Council 'Snooping' Powers
Mayor Dave Hodgson has announced a series of measures to restrict Bedford Borough Council's use of powers dubbed a 'snoopers' charter' for councils, and bring openness and transparency locally to a system which has been abused by a number of Councils around the country. The Mayor's reforms include introducing public scrutiny of any use by the Council of powers to conduct covert surveillance on local residents and new limits over authorisations of such uses.
The Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIPA) Act 2000 gives councils powers to carry out surveillance, and was originally intended to deal with suspected terror-related offences. However, Councils face few restrictions on their use of the powers, with examples from elsewhere including a case of a council spying on parents incorrectly suspected of using a false address to get their child into a preferred school and numerous cases of councils spying on their own staff. Mayor Dave's reforms include limiting the number of staff who can use the powers to only the most senior officers, and public reporting of every use of the powers to meetings of the Council's Executive four times a year.
Mayor Dave Hodgson said: "It is absolutely absurd that Councils are able to conduct round-the-clock surveillance on local residents with few restrictions and no public scrutiny of their actions. Examples from elsewhere show that Councils have often used these powers, which were introduced as part of anti-terror measures, for trivial purposes or due to unfounded suspicions. We are acting to ensure that local residents can have absolute confidence that Bedford Borough Council will not, and cannot, misuse these sweeping powers against them in any circumstances.'
"We are restricting the Council's use of the powers and are opening up the process to public scrutiny for the first time, giving all residents the opportunity to see for themselves where these powers are used.'
"This is part of our ongoing drive to open up the Council to local residents, following measures including the removal of barriers to public questions at Council meetings, publishing all payments over £500 and the requirement for just thirty signatures on a petition to trigger a public debate at a meeting of the Full Council."
Under Bedford Borough Council's previous policy for the use of RIPA powers, authorisation for their use could be made by a range of Council officers at different levels including Directors, Heads of Service and Service Managers. This meant a large number of staff across the organisation could give the green light to potentially intrusive surveillance operations. Mayor Dave has moved to change this, with only six of the Council's most senior officers now able to authorise use of the powers, and the introduction of oversight by elected members through the quarterly public reports to the Council's Executive.
The first quarterly report on Bedford Borough Council's usage of RIPA powers will be considered by the Council's Executive at its meeting on 16th March 2011.