Applications for the use of covert human intelligence sources are not submitted to the Home Office. The authorities responsible for authorising the use of covert human intelligence sources under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 ('RIPA')—including the Serious Organised Crime Agency which replaced the National Criminal Intelligence Service and National Crime Squad in 2005—are listed in Schedule 1 to that Act as amended by statutory instruments 2003 No.3171, 2005 No. 1084 and 2006 No. 1874. The Home Office will shortly bring forward a new statutory instrument to consolidate these earlier instruments.
RIPA vests statutory oversight of such authorisations with the independent Office of Surveillance Commissioners and the Intelligence Services Commissioner. The Chief Surveillance Commissioner publishes annual reports on his findings, copies of which are in the House Library, but the figures provided in the reports relate only to applications granted. The figures are reproduced as follows:
2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 By law enforcement 1— 5,400 5,900 5,907 4,980 4,559 4,373 4,498 4,278 By other authorities 1— 1— 1— 273 308 437 429 204 234 1 Not given
The Home Office does not collect such figures. RIPA vests statutory oversight of CHIS authorisations with the independent Office of Surveillance Commissioners and the Intelligence Services Commissioner. The Chief Surveillance Commissioner publishes annual reports on his findings, copies of which are in the House Library, which include statistics on the number of CHIS authorisations granted, but do not provide a breakdown of how many CHIS are recruited by each public authority. No such statistics are provided for the activities of the Security and Intelligence agencies.