New powers to combat fraud: Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill

Michael Grant of London Guildhall University examines UK draft legislation that defines a new framework for surveillance, communication interception and decryption activities.

There can be doubt that fraudsters are using more sophisticated methods to obtain money from financial institutions. If examples of this are required one need look no further than Guinness, BCCI, Blue Arrow, Robert Maxwell and Nick Leeson. The use of telephones, fax machines, the Internet and electronic mail are tools which are now becoming commonplace and are very often the focus for the collection of evidence by the police. The challenge to codify this area of the law in relation to the gathering of evidence has been taken up by the Government. New proposals concerning, amongst other things, the interception of communications, the acquisition and disclosure of data relating to communications, the carrying out of surveillance, the use of covert intelligence sources and the acquisition of the means by which electronic passwords maybe decrypted or assessed are being debated in Parliament and will soon find their way to the statute book under the guise of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill. The purpose of this article is to consider these proposals.