The launch comes shortly before Parliament debates controversial regulations on Monday that would significantly extend the list of public bodies that will have access to data on individuals, giving bodies as diverse as local councils and the Food Standards Agency, the NHS and the Post Office, access to data on telephone and internet use by British citizens under certain circumstances.
However, the draft Order does not give these bodies any authority to undertake “intrusive surveillance,” which is in the remit of the OSC.
The new OSC site provides guidance based on the Police Act 1997, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Act 2000 and the RIP (Scotland) Act 2000. Its objectives are to promote “an effective and ethical process for the authorisation of covert surveillance in accordance with legislation,” to “provide public reassurance about the authorisation of covert surveillance,” and to “run our own operations efficiently and effectively.”
BBC News quotes Ian Brown, director of the Foundation for Information Policy Research, who doubts the effectiveness of the OSC:
“The number of staff that it has is such that it is completely unfeasible that it would be able to provide any oversight of how these powers are used.”
The OSC was created in 1999 by the Home Office. The following year, the RIP Act gave it authority to approve and oversee surveillance operations.