My Lords, I beg to move Amendment 201ZA and to speak, I am afraid, to another cornucopia of amendments in this group: Amendments 201ZB, 201ZC, 201ZJ, 210ZB, 210ZC, 217A, 217B, 217C, 231ZA and 231ZB.
Clause 136(9) requires the Secretary of State, or the senior official acting on the Secretary of State’s behalf, to modify the warrant if an operational purpose,
“is no longer a purpose for which the examination of intercepted content or secondary data obtained under the warrant is or may be necessary”.
The question is: how will the Secretary of State or the official know that there has been such a change requiring the warrant to be modified unless the situation is kept under review? Our Amendment 201ZA requires the Secretary of State, or a senior official acting on behalf of the Secretary of State, to,
“keep under review whether any operational purpose specified in a warrant remains a purpose for which the examination of intercepted or secondary data obtained under the warrant is or may be necessary”.
Amendment 217A makes the same point in relation to bulk equipment interference warrants, as dealt with in Clause 172. Amendment 210ZB makes the same point in relation to bulk acquisition warrants, as dealt with in Clause 152. Amendment 231ZA makes the same point in relation to bulk personal dataset warrants, as dealt with in Clause 192.
I turn now to Amendment 201ZB. Clause 138(3) allows the Secretary of State, or a senior official acting on behalf of the Secretary of State, to cancel a warrant if, for example, the examination of the content or secondary data obtained under the warrant is no longer necessary for any of the specified operational purposes. Clause 136(9) requires the modification of a warrant by the Secretary of State, or a senior official, if they consider that,
“any operational purpose … is no longer a purpose for which the examination of intercepted content or secondary data obtained under the warrant is or may be necessary”.
But how will the Secretary of State know that, and, therefore, how will the Secretary of State know that the warrant should be cancelled?
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Amendment 201ZB seeks to add the removal of an operational purpose to the list of modifications that should be considered major modifications in order to probe this issue. Amendment 210ZC makes a similar point in relation to bulk acquisition warrants under Clause 149. Amendment 217B makes the same point in relation to bulk equipment interference warrants under Clause 172. Amendment 231ZB makes a similar point in relation to bulk personal dataset warrants, as covered by Clause 195.
On Amendment 201ZC, Clause 136(13) states that despite the main purpose of a bulk interception warrant being the interception of overseas-related content and secondary data, the modification of a bulk interception warrant so that the warrant no longer authorises or requires the interception of communications in the course of their transmission or obtaining secondary data from such interception, does not prevent the bulk interception warrant being a bulk interception warrant. If I understand this correctly—which would be amazing
—a bulk interception warrant that no longer allows bulk interception is still a bulk interception warrant. I would be grateful if the Minister could help me with that. Is it that the analysis of the content and secondary data may continue, even if the pool of content and data is not being added to? Can the Minister explain? The amendment seeks to delete subsection (13) to probe these issues. Amendment 217C makes the same points in relation to bulk equipment interference warrants that no longer authorise or require the securing of interference with any equipment under Clause 172(14).
On Amendment 201ZJ, bulk interception warrants are aimed at overseas-focused communications and subsections (3) and (4) of Clause 142 together prohibit the selection of intercepted content for examination that is referable to an individual known to be in the British Isles at the time. Amendment 201ZJ envisages a situation where a known terrorist based overseas, for example, whose communications have been selected for examination, as allowed by the Bill as drafted because he is overseas, then travels to the UK to lead a terrorist attack. Our interpretation of the prohibitions in Clause 142(3) and (4) is that his communications could then no longer be selected for examination once he arrives in the UK, at least not under the powers of this provision. Perhaps a separate warrant would then need to be applied for.
There should be an exemption from the prohibition from selecting intercepted content for someone known to be in the UK in such circumstances. Our amendment therefore seeks to add,
“unless the individual is believed to have arrived in the British Islands within the previous 28 days”,
to cover the situation where overseas terrorists arrive in the UK.
I am somewhat disappointed that more noble Lords are not in the Chamber to hear this but, if any noble Lord is puzzled, this amendment seeks to increase the surveillance powers in the Bill and to assist the security services in their work. However, perhaps our interpretation of the Bill as it stands is wrong and the Minister will explain. I beg to move Amendment 201ZA.