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Office of Surveillance Commissioners

Volume 479: debated on Monday 1 September 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what guidance (a) her Department and (b) the Office of the Surveillance Commissioner has provided to local authorities on publishing inspection reports of the Office of the Surveillance Commissioner; (221256)

(2) if she will ensure that inspection reports of local authorities produced by the Office of the Surveillance Commissioner are published online.

Statutory responsibility for the oversight of covert surveillance lies with the Office of Surveillance Commissioners (OSC) which is independent of Government. The question of online or any other publishing of OSC inspection reports for individual public authorities is a matter for the chief surveillance commissioner. The Home Office has not issued any guidance on this matter.