Privy Council Review of intercept as evidence: report - Official ...

2006-2007, found that there was an 88% charge to conviction rate of
completed cases 22 . This conviction rate is consistent with the 85% arrest to
conviction rate of HMCE drugs operations supported by intercept in 2001/02,
as reported in the 2003-04 Multi-Agency Review of Intercept as Evidence.
RELEVANCE OF COMPARISONS TO UK
178. In all of the examples examined, other than the Republic of Ireland, the
respective law enforcement agencies and prosecuting authorities asserted
strongly that intercept as evidence was a valuable tool to enable them to
combat and convict serious criminals. The value of intercept product as
evidence to secure terrorism-related convictions was generally less clear.
There was also no conclusive proof that other countries’ use of intercept as
evidence resulted in higher conviction rates for serious crime than the UK’s
approach of using intercept as an investigative and criminal intelligence tool.
179. The ways in which each country had developed their evidential
regimes, and managed the risks and costs, varied considerably and were
shaped by their respective criminal justice systems.
180. We believe that the approaches adopted by the EU countries, other
than the Republic of Ireland, tend not to have great relevance for the UK, for a
number of reasons:
The examining magistrate system of criminal proceedings combines
investigative and judicial functions within one role, with the examining
magistrate able to authorise intercepts to develop the investigation for
which he/she is responsible. Once the case comes to trial, defence
questioning of this case is far less rigorous than under the UK system.
This means that the risks of disclosure of sensitive techniques or
content is considerably lower than it would be in the UK, whilst at the
same time being less open to ECHR Article 6 challenge, as the
intercept has been produced as part of a judicially overseen enquiry.
In France, The Netherlands and Spain, law enforcement agencies’
efforts to combat serious organised crime and terrorism receive less
support from their security and intelligence agencies than is the case in
the UK. We have concluded that the price of adopting such a clearly
split system of intercept in the UK would be a significant reduction in
the amount of day to day support provided to serious crime
investigations in the UK by the intelligence services’ intercept
capabilities.
***
181. The Common Law examples are of greater relevance. They illustrate
how intercept as evidence has been introduced into adversarial criminal
justice systems, with a number of approaches adopted to protect against
disclosure of sensitive capabilities and techniques.
22 Of 218 individuals: 104 convictions so far; 7 acquittals; 13 not proceeded with; 94 still
awaiting trial
Chapter VII
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