Change to surveillance law will mean police will require a judge’s approval to access journalists’ phone records

British police’s use of Ripa powers to snoop on journalists to be reined in

The UK government will reform the law to prevent the police using surveillance powers to discover journalistic sources, the justice minister, Simon Hughes, has confirmed in the wake of growing outcry at the misuse of powers.

Hughes said the police’s use of powers had been “entirely inappropriate” and in future it would require the authorisation of a judge for police forces to be given approval to access journalists’ phone records in pursuit of a criminal investigation.

He said the presumption would be that if a journalist was acting in the public interest, they would be protected.

Speaking on Sky News’s Murnaghan programme, Hughes added that if the police made an application to a court he would assume a journalist would be informed that the authorities were seeking to access his phone records.

He said: “The principle has to be a) freedom of expression, b) journalists have a job to do and there is a public interest defence available to all journalists so you would be able to argue that case.”

The furore over police accessing journalists’ phones led to widespread calls for urgent reform of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (Ripa), which allows officers to request call data from phone companies without a judge’s approval.

More than 100,000 Ripa requests are made every year for access to communications data against targets including private citizens. It is not known how many have involved journalists’ phones.

Another Ripa power has previously been used by councils to spy on residents suspected of dog fouling and lying on school application forms, prompting an earlier tightening of the legislation.

Leading figures from across the political divide to include newspapers, former law officers and celebrities including actor Hugh Grant who opposed phone hacking by newspapers.

Lord Falconer, Labour’s lord chancellor when Ripa was introduced, added: “If the police’s cockeyed view of Ripa is right then whistleblowers beware. They are treating Ripa as abolishing special protection given to journalistic sources.

“Police chiefs should make it clear that, save for urgent cases, they cannot access computer or telephone records where the revelation of a source is in issue without the authority of a judge.”