Statutory Instruments
2002 No. 1931
INVESTIGATORY POWERS
The Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Maintenance of Interception Capability) Order 2002
Made
22nd July 2002
Coming into force
1st August 2002
Whereas the Secretary of State has consulted the persons listed in section 12(9) and (11) of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000( 1 ) about this Order;
And whereas a draft of this Order has been laid before Parliament and approved by a resolution of each House;
Now, therefore, the Secretary of State, in exercise of the powers conferred on him by section 12(1), (2) and (5) and section 78(5) of that Act, hereby makes the following Order:
Citation, commencement and interpretation
1. —(1) This Order may be cited as the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Maintenance of Interception Capability) Order 2002 and shall come into force on 1st August 2002.
(2) In this Order “service provider” means a person providing a public postal service or a public telecommunications service, or proposing to do so.
Interception capability
2. —(1) The Schedule to this Order sets out those obligations which appear to the Secretary of State reasonable to impose on service providers for the purpose of securing that it is and remains practicable for requirements to provide assistance in relation to interception warrants to be imposed and complied with.
(2) Subject to paragraph (3) the obligations in—
(a) Part I of the Schedule only apply to service providers who provide, or propose to provide, a public postal service; and
(b) Part II of the Schedule only apply to service providers who provide, or propose to provide, a public telecommunications service.
(3) The obligations in Part II of the Schedule shall not apply to service providers who—
(a) do not intend to provide a public telecommunications service to more than 10,000 persons in any one or more parts of the United Kingdom and do not do so; or
(b) only provide, or propose to provide, a public telecommunications service in relation to the provision of banking, insurance, investment or other financial services.
Interception capability notices
3. —(1) The Secretary of State may give a service provider a notice requiring him to take all such steps falling within paragraph (2) as may be specified or described in the notice.
(2) Those steps are ones appearing to the Secretary of State to be necessary for securing that the service provider has the practical capability of meeting the obligations set out in the Schedule to this Order.
Referral of notices to the Technical Advisory Board
4. The period within which any person to whom a notice has been given under article 3 may refer the notice to the Technical Advisory Board is specified as being before the end of 28 days from the date of the notice.
Bob Ainsworth
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State
Home Office
22nd July 2002
Article 2
SCHEDULE OBLIGATIONS ON SERVICE PROVIDERS
Part I: Interception Capability for Public Postal Services
1. To ensure the interception and temporary retention of postal items destined for addresses in the United Kingdom for provision to the person on whose application the interception warrant was issued.
2. To provide for the interception and retention of postal items sent by identified persons where the carrier keeps records of who sent which item in the course of their normal business.
3. To maintain a system of opening, copying and resealing of any postal item carried for less than £1.
4. To comply with the obligations set out in paragraphs 1 to 3 above in such a manner that the chance of the interception subject or other unauthorised persons becoming aware of any interception is minimised.
Part II: Interception Capability for Public Telecommunication Services
5. To provide a mechanism for implementing interceptions within one working day of the service provider being informed that the interception has been appropriately authorised.
8. To ensure that the hand-over interface complies with any requirements communicated by the Secretary of State to the service provider, which, where practicable and appropriate, will be in line with agreed industry standards (such as those of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute).
9. To ensure filtering to provide only the traffic data associated with the warranted telecommunications identifier, where reasonable.
11. To enable the simultaneous interception of the communications of up to 1 in 10,000 of the persons to whom the service provider provides the public telecommunications service, provided that those persons number more than 10,000.
12. To ensure that the reliability of the interception capability is at least equal to the reliability of the public telecommunications service carrying the communication which is being intercepted.
14. To comply with the obligations set out in paragraphs 5 to 13 above in such a manner that the chance of the interception subject or other unauthorised persons becoming aware of any interception is minimised.