Independent Surveillance Review Issues Call for Evidence

Following its first meeting, the Independent Surveillance Review (ISR) is now inviting written submissions from a range of organisations and individuals to inform the panel.

The Independent Surveillance Review (ISR) Panel, convened by the Royal United Services Institute, held its first meeting on Wednesday 16 July to confirm its modus operandi, its outline research agenda and the individuals and organisations, both in government and the private sector, with whom the Panel would like to engage.

The ISR wishes to receive evidence from any individuals or organisations, either in the UK or abroad, who would like to submit a paper or other material and/or who are willing to offer oral evidence to the panel, if invited. All written evidence will be published at regular intervals by the Independent Surveillance Review, unless otherwise specified by the author(s) of the evidence, and it will be collated into an evidence archive at the conclusion of the process in 2015.

For the Panel’s first call for evidence particular attention is being given to the following issues:

• The current and future requirements for digital information by public authorities;
• The privacy implications of the UK Government’s current interception capabilities as set out in the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act and in light of revelations by Edward Snowden;
• The privacy safeguards needed in an era of big data;
• The suitability of the UK's current statutory oversight arrangements in relation to the retention and use of data;
• The challenges faced by the UK Government in providing security and privacy for its citizens in an era of rapidly evolving communications technology.

The purpose of the ISR is to review the relationship between the needs of security and law enforcement in relation to civil liberties concerns in an era of rapidly evolving communications technology. The precise Terms of Reference for this review and members of the Panel can be found onhere.

The review will be delivered to the Deputy Prime Minister after the next General Election and will be considered by the Government alongside the review being conducted by the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee and the individual review of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) by David Anderson QC.

Written evidence can be submitted to the ISR at any time up to 27 March 2015 and should be clearly marked as ‘Evidence Submitted to the Independent Surveillance Review’. It should be sent electronically to charliee@rusi.org or by post to RUSI, 61 Whitehall, London, SW1A 2ET.  Any telephone enquiries should be addressed to Charlie Edwards on +44 (0)20 7747 2639.