Croydon Council uses anti-terror laws to spy on its citizens

7:00am Thursday 9th April 2009

Exclusive By Harry Miller

Anti-terror powers are being invoked by Croydon Council to spy on residents over minor breaches of the law, it has emerged.

Croydon Council has ordered surveillance designed to thwart terrorist bombings to snoop on benefit fraudsters, noisy neighbours, drug dealers, fly-tippers, racists and rogue traders.

From August 2007 until January 2009 the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) has been used 77 times – with a 10-fold increase in its use in the last 12 months.

The Ripa was brought in in 2000 to regulate the ways which the Government could spy on suspected terrorists. It was amended by former Home Secretary Geoff Hoon in 2004 to allow local councils to snoop on their residents.

Croydon Central MP Andrew Pelling said: “When councils begin using anti-terror law to snoop on residents the line between them and the police blurs. "Residents begin to distrust the council and are reluctant to go to them with their problems. "They are seen as another arm of the law and not to help the people which is ultimately why they are employed.

“When the law was re-written more of an emphasis should have been placed on what councils can and can’t use the Ripa for.”

Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling, said: “I think it’s absolutely wrong these powers have been used by local authorities when they were originally designed for anti-terrorism policing.

“It’s not just a waste of money, it’s an inappropriate invasion of privacy.

“It’s using powers that are designed to fight terrorism for local purposes. That’s just wrong.

A Croydon Council spokesman added: “The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act doesn’t give the council or anyone else new powers to carry out surveillance. They simply control how a wide range of public bodies, including councils, actually carry out what they have been doing for a number of years.

“We’re using the powers to respond to residents’ complaints about rip-off merchants, fly-tippers and benefit fraudsters, entirely in line with what the act intended. Without it, we wouldn’t be able to provide the same level of reassurance and protection that local people want.

“Human rights legislation contains strict rules to protect people from unnecessary intrusion, and we are mindful that whenever the council carries out surveillance under Ripa we must prove that it is both necessary and proportionate to whatever is being investigated.

“The very fact that we have used Ripa indicates that we take our public protection role very seriously. “Since January 2004, under part one chapter two of Ripa, local authorities in England have been entitled to request access to billing and subscriber communications data whilst investigating a crime.

“Local authorities do not have power to bug people’s phones or read people’s emails."

• Necessary or excessive? What do you think about the council’s tactics? Let us know in the comments section below.