With this it will be convenient to discuss new clause 4—Legal certainty for transparency reporting—
‘(1) The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 is amended as in subsection (2).
(2) In section 54 (Tipping-off), after subsection (5) insert—
“(5A) In proceedings against any person for an offence under this section in respect of any disclosure, it shall be a defence for that person to show that the disclosure was made as part of an aggregated statistical disclosure covering a period of time greater than six months.”’
This amendment would provide a defence against the “tipping-off” offence, which has been cited as a reason why companies cannot release transparency reports. This amendment would allow statistics to be made available at six monthly (or greater) intervals.