Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000: proposed amendments affecting lawful interception

The government ran a short, targeted consultation in respect of two specific changes to RIPA to address an incorrect transposition of European Directives. Those changes concerned:

• informed consent when both parties consent to their communications being intercepted
• the creation of a sanction for unintentional unlawful interception 

The consultation closing date was extended from 7 December to 17 December.

Although the transposition of the E-Privacy Directive was completed in 2003, the European Commission has identified deficiencies in the way in which the Data Protection Directive and the E-Privacy Directive were transposed. We sought to make changes to RIPA to address two of these issues, namely: 

1. the existing offence in RIPA only addresses intentional unlawful interception
2. in the provisions where both parties consent to an interception the requirement for consent is not the same as in other data protection legislation.