The Scottish Government lodged a Legislative
Consent Memorandum (LCM) on 23 June
2016 for the Investigatory Powers
Bill.
The LCM explains why the Scottish Government
would like the Scottish Parliament to give consent to the Westminster
Parliament to legislate in certain areas and to make changes to the powers of
the Scottish Ministers in relation to competence.
The Justice Committee must report on the LCM to
the Parliament and would very much like to hear the views of experts and
stakeholders on the proposed legislation, to inform Parliamentary scrutiny.
The LCM
The parts of the Bill which require the
consent of the Scottish Parliament are set out below.
Part 1:
General privacy provisions: this asserts the privacy
of communications and provides for related offences.
Part 2:
Lawful interception of communications: this provides for interception: acquiring the content of communications.
Part 5: Equipment interference: This concerns equipment interference: interfering with equipment (such as computers or smartphones) to obtain communications, private information or equipment data.
Part 8:
Oversight arrangements: This sets out new oversight regime arrangements which will replace the three existing commissioners (the Intelligence Services Commissioner, the Interception of Communications Commissioner and the Chief Surveillance Commissioner) with a single new commissioner, the Investigatory Powers Commissioner (IPC). Part 8 also sets out a domestic right of appeal from the Investigatory Powers Tribunal.
Part 9: Miscellaneous and general provisions: this contains miscellaneous and general provisions.
Reasons for requiring legislative consent
More
detail on the reasons for requiring legislative consent is set out in the LCM
itself.
Part
1
The subject matter of Part 1 of the Act is
Part III of the Police Act 1997 (authorisation to interfere with property)
which falls within the competence of the Scottish Parliament. The overarching privacy conditions place
obligations on those exercising functions under the Bill, including Scottish
Ministers and this alters the executive competence of the Scottish Ministers.
Part
2
Interception of communications is reserved
under schedule 5 of the Scotland Act 1998; however there are exceptions to this
reservation including the interception of communications to or by those in a
place of detention. These exceptions are
legislated for in the Bill.
Additionally, Part 2 imposes a limitation on the executive competence of
Scottish Ministers with the proposed introduction of judicial oversight on
decisions to authorise interceptions.
Part
5
The
subject matter of Part III of the Police Act 1997 (property interference) is
devolved. This part of the Bill seeks to provide a new equipment interference
regime which can keep pace with the development of modern technology and
evolving methods of communication and that is consistent throughout the
UK. Additionally, the proposed new
warranted authorisation regime for equipment interference is subject to
approval by a Judicial Commissioner and would alter the executive competence of
Scottish Ministers.
Part
8
This
part of the Bill provides oversight arrangements for devolved authorities and
bodies and seeks to replace the Intelligence Services Commissioner, the
Interception of Communications Commissioner and the Chief Surveillance
Commissioner with a single new commissioner the Investigatory Powers
Commissioner (IPC) who will be supported by Judicial Commissioners. In addition, this part will alter the
executive competence of Scottish Ministers as it seeks to remove their power to
appoint a Scottish Surveillance Commissioner and give regulation making powers
to the Secretary for State to modify devolved matters in connection with the
functions of the new IPC.
Part
9
Part 9
introduces schedules 8 and 10. Schedule 8 seeks to alter the executive
competence of the Scottish Ministers by conferring on them a new power to issue
combination warrants while schedule 10 makes minor and consequential
amendments, including amendments to the Regulation of Investigatory Powers
(Scotland) Act 2000.
Call for evidence
The Committee would like
to hear the views of stakeholders on the LCM.
It would be helpful if comments could be broken down by reference to
each Part of the Investigatory Powers Bill in respect of which the Scottish
Parliament’s consent is considered necessary. The Committee does not expect
stakeholders to necessarily have comments on all parts of the LCM.
The Committee would like to receive views on
both:
- The devolved areas in which the UK Government proposes to legislate.
- The extent to which the executive competence of the Scottish Ministers will be altered either by the conferring of additional powers or the limitation of their existing powers.
The deadline for submissions is 5.00pm on Friday 12 August 2016.
Procedure
The Parliamentary
Business Bureau will assign the LCM to a Committee. It is anticipated that the Bureau will refer
the LCM to the Justice Committee as the lead Committee. The Committee will consider the LCM and
report to Parliament, which will then vote upon a legislative consent motion on
whether to agree to the Westminster Parliament legislating on its behalf. The Scottish Parliament must vote on the
motion before the last amending stage of the Bill at Westminster.
More information on the LCM procedure can be
found here:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/Bills/31308.aspx
How to
submit your evidence
Written submissions should be in MS Word or
similar word processing format, and should be no longer than 4 sides of A4. If
your submission is longer than this, please provide a short summary of the main
points. Submissions should be set out in numbered paragraphs. If a submission
refers to existing published material, it is preferable to provide hyperlinks
rather than extensive extracts.
Before making a submission, please read the
Parliament’s policy
on treatment of written evidence by subject and mandatory committees.
If possible, written submissions should be
submitted electronically by email to:
[email protected]
Hard copy written
submissions should be sent to:
Justice
Committee Clerks
Room
T2.60
Scottish
Parliament
Edinburgh
EH99
1SP
Contact
Any queries about written submissions should be addressed in the first instance
to the Justice Committee clerking team at the above email address or on 0131
348 5047.