This document summarizes recommendations from reports by David Anderson QC, the Intelligence and Security Committee, and RUSI on reforming and consolidating complex UK legislation governing intelligence agencies and investigatory powers. It notes calls to replace existing laws with a new comprehensive bill that clearly defines agencies' powers and capabilities while strengthening oversight and legal safeguards. The government plans to introduce a draft Investigatory Powers Bill for scrutiny later in 2015.

1. What next for RIPA?
@IanBrownOII

2. Grim RIPA
• “RIPA, obscure since its inception, has been patched up so many times as
to make it incomprehensible to all but a tiny band of initiates. A multitude
of alternative powers, some of them without statutory safeguards,
confuse the picture further. This state of affairs is undemocratic,
unnecessary and – in the long run – intolerable.” –David Anderson QC
(2015) s.35
• “The interactions between the different pieces of legislation which relate
to the statutory functions of the intelligence and security Agencies are
absurdly complicated.” -I.S.C. (2015) p.117
• “The whole subject matter with which my office is concerned is
complicated and sensitive. Fully understanding it all requires a period of
mature experience and reflection, and there was a real risk during the
whole of 2013 that I might accidentally and from inexperience overstep
the proper limits of sensitivity or make inaccurate or incomplete public
statements with off the cuff oral comments… RIPA 2000 Part I contains
provisions, some of which are difficult for anyone to get their head round”
–Sir Anthony May, IoCC 2013 Annual Report ss.6.4.3/6.5.3

3. Intelligence and Security Committee David Anderson
“introduce a new Intelligence Services Bill setting out,
in one Act of Parliament, the functions of the three UK
intelligence and security Agencies… [and] each
intrusive capability available to the Agencies… the time
has come for much greater openness and transparency
regarding the Agencies’ work… All capabilities which
provide the content of an individual’s communications
should be subject to the same legal safeguards”
“RIPA Part I, DRIPA 2014 and Part 3 of CTSA 2015
should be replaced by a comprehensive new law,
drafted from scratch…structured and expressed so as to
enable its essentials to be understood by intelligent
readers across the world”, covering
Telecommunications Act 1984, hacking, Wireless
Telegraphy Act 2006, bulk personal data, international
sharing
“Ministers are able to take into account the wider
context of each warrant application and the risks
involved…[and] are democratically accountable for
their decisions. It is therefore right that responsibility
for authorising warrants for intrusive activities remains
with them.”
“Specific interception warrants, combined warrants,
bulk interception warrants and bulk communications
data warrants should be issued and renewed only on
the authority of a Judicial Commissioner…
[Commissioners] should be replaced by a new
Independent Surveillance & Intelligence Commission”
“there are legitimate concerns that certain categories
of Communications Data…have the potential to reveal
details about a person’s private life (i.e. their habits,
preferences and lifestyle) that are more intrusive. This
category of information requires greater safeguards
than the basic ‘who, when and where’ of a
communication.”
“In recognition of the capacity of modern
communications data to produce insights of a highly
personal nature, where a novel or contentious request
for communications data is made, the DP should refer
the matter to ISIC for a Judicial Commissioner to decide
whether to authorise the request.”
“The Interception of Communications Commissioner
should be given statutory responsibility to review the
various selection criteria used in bulk interception to
ensure that these follow directly from the Certificate
and valid national security requirements.”
“The capability of the security and intelligence agencies
to collect and analyse intercepted material in bulk
should be maintained, subject to rulings of the courts,
but used only subject to the safeguards in
Recommendations 40-49 and 72-80”

4. Additional Anderson
• “The Home Secretary should be able by Notice…to require service providers to retain
relevant communications data for periods of up to a year”
• “Early and intensive dialogue” on web log retention for “resolving shared IP addresses or
other identifiers (in particular, to identify the user of a website); identifying when a person
has communicated through a particular online service provider (so as to enable further
enquiries to be pursued in relation to that provider); and/or allowing websites visited by a
person to be identified (to investigate possible criminal activity).”
• “Few now contend for a master key to all communications held by the state, for a
requirement to hold data locally in unencrypted form, or for a guaranteed facility to insert
back doors into any telecommunications system. Such tools threaten the integrity of our
communications and of the internet itself. Far preferable, on any view, is a law-based system
in which encryption keys are handed over (by service providers or by the users themselves)
only after properly authorised requests.”
• Extraterritorial effect: seek cooperation of providers and streamline MLAT procedures; “take
a lead in developing and negotiating a new international framework for data-sharing among
like-minded democratic nations.”
• “There should be a right of appeal to an appropriate court from rulings of the IPT, on points
of law only…[which] should be given the same power as the High Court to make a declaration
of incompatibility under HRA 1998 s4”

5. Government plans
• “The [Investigatory Powers Bill] covers all investigatory powers
including communications data” –Queen’s Speech briefing, 27/5/15
• “Collectively I believe [the ISC/Anderson/RUSI reports] provide a
firm basis for consultation on legislation… the Government will
publish a draft bill in the Autumn for pre-legislative scrutiny by a
Joint Committee of Parliament, with the intention of introducing a
Bill early in the New Year… [which] will need to be in place by the
end of December 2016.” –Home Secretary Oral Statement,
11/6/2015
• “the Government will be taking forward Sir Nigel [Sheinwald]’s
advice, including pursuing a strengthened UK-US Mutual Legal
Assistance Treaty process and a new international framework.” –PM
Written Statement, 11/6/2015