UK: Report explains council’s use of ‘snooping’ powers

Adrian Jenkins reports:

A rare glimpse has been given into the use by council staff of controversial ‘snooping’ powers.

South Derbyshire District Council officers lifted the lid on their secretive world following a request by members.
In a report to a forthcoming overview and scrutiny committee, Andrea McCaskie, the authority’s head of legal and democratic services, said only two ‘snooping’ authorisations were granted under the 2000 Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) from April to September last year.

“In both cases,” she writes, “surveillance was required in order to establish whether benefit claimants had partners residing with them and whether those partners were in employment.

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