Council calls-off ‘Big Brother’ spies

OLDHAM Council has curbed its use of covert surveillance powers to tackle petty crimes such as noise nuisance and fly-tipping.

Last year, the council was named as one of the most frequent users in the country of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) — designed to tackle terrorism.

But new figures released by pressure group Big Brother Watch show the council has relaxed its use of the “spying” powers and is nowhere near the top 15 of frequent users.

RIPA allows authorities to use surveillance and information gathering to prevent crime. But some councils have been accused of using them for petty reasons — such as dog fouling, spying on village paperboys, or checking on parents making school admission applications.

Statistics released in March, 2009, showed Oldham Council had used RIPA 185 times in five years, mostly for investigating noise nuisance and fly-tipping.

But latest figures show that in 2008/09, the council used the powers 23 times, 17 for noise nuisance investigations, four for fraud, one fly-tipping and one counterfeiting.

In 2009/10, they were again used 23 times, 10 for noise nuisance, eight waste investigations, two for licensing, two for consumer protection and one for fraud. It resulted in two prosecutions.

Critics say RIPA is an erosion of civil liberties.

Oldham Council reviewed its use of RIPA last year and councillors are now consulted before the act is used to give an extra oversight.

Council leader Howard Sykes said: “RIPA ensures that the surveillance is lawful, necessary and proportionate and does not infringe anyone’s human rights. The powers available to the council are used carefully and proportionally. There are clear policies and a level of democratic accountability on how and when they are used.

“These powers are used effectively by the council to target and deal with cases of anti-social behaviour that affect all citizens and the information provided has been used to secure prosecutions that have helped to improve the borough.

“The eight cases highlighted in relation to waste are concerned with a specific joint operation that was carried out by Oldham Council and GMP into the unauthorised carriage of waste without a valid licence.”

The new coalition Government has pledged to ban the use of the powers by councils unless they are signed off by a magistrate and required for stopping serious crime.