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Showing 54 of 2,354,908 contributions. Latest 30 days: 0. Coverage: 12 May 1999 — 25 Mar 2026.
Alison McInnes (North East Scotland) (LD) LD Committee
01 Dec 2015
Interception of Communications Commissioner’s Office
I wrote to you last week, convener, after the information was published, to ask that the committee make it a matter of priority that we consider the issue further. The commissioner said that he had uncovered reckless behaviour. It is pretty outrageous that the police force has...
Alison McInnes LD Committee
01 Dec 2015
Interception of Communications Commissioner’s Office
Yes. We need to be absolutely clear who knew what, when they knew it and what action was taken.
Alison McInnes (North East Scotland) (LD) LD Committee
15 Dec 2015
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
I understand Mr Richardson’s desire to minimise the damage of the language, but the terms “wilful” and “reckless” have been used because the breaches of privacy in this area have been so significant. I will return to the SPA’s comments. You said that, after learning in mid-Ju...
Alison McInnes LD Committee
15 Dec 2015
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
Would it not have been appropriate for you or the board members to set aside that particular investigation, to say that the matter raised general issues for Police Scotland and to ask what the chief constable was doing about that?
Alison McInnes LD Committee
15 Dec 2015
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
Mr Richardson, in response to Mr Finnie you said that no officers from Police Scotland’s counter-corruption unit were going through misconduct proceedings as a result of breaching the code. Is that correct?
Alison McInnes LD Committee
15 Dec 2015
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
Short of any misconduct proceedings, what have you done to establish why the breaches occurred in this instance? You said that all five breaches related to one case.
Alison McInnes LD Committee
15 Dec 2015
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
I have not made any suggestion that anybody is running amok. Can you tell us the rank and position of the person who signed off the authorisations?
Alison McInnes LD Committee
15 Dec 2015
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
Earlier, you said that the checks and balances and the sign-offs were outwith the CCU, but the findings were that two of them were within the organisation.
Alison McInnes LD Committee
15 Dec 2015
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
You have said that the issue related to a murder case.
Alison McInnes LD Committee
15 Dec 2015
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
It would therefore have been of some significance and some concern among senior members of the organisation, surely, that you perhaps had someone who was leaking information. Is that right?
Alison McInnes LD Committee
15 Dec 2015
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
So who within the senior management of the police knew about it, and why were you not extra careful about sign-offs, given that it was such an important case?
Alison McInnes LD Committee
15 Dec 2015
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
I think that you do seek to minimise it, but we have to rely on what the commissioner has said, which was that it was not proportionate, lawful or necessary and that it was therefore “reckless”. That is what the ruling concluded. If your officer was aware that there were new g...
Alison McInnes LD Committee
15 Dec 2015
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
You have made quite a lot of the fact that the legislation and the guidelines were new, but it was high-profile legislation, because it resulted from concerns about accessing journalists’ sources, so there was a lot of public awareness of the new guidelines. Obviously, it was ...
Alison McInnes LD Committee
15 Dec 2015
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
Did Detective Superintendent Donaldson seek advice from his senior officers, or did he make the ruling on his own?
Alison McInnes LD Committee
15 Dec 2015
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
The checks and balances clearly did not work. The law was breached because judicial approval was not sought. Has Police Scotland sought judicial approval for any other applications relating to journalism since the new rules came in in March?
Alison McInnes LD Committee
15 Dec 2015
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
Mr Richardson’s evidence raises three points that I want to explore further. Did you actually find the leak? 11:15
Alison McInnes LD Committee
15 Dec 2015
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
If you have found a leak, has the action that you might be able to take been compromised by Police Scotland’s own breaches of this legislation?
Alison McInnes LD Committee
15 Dec 2015
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
I think that I am right in saying that the Emma Caldwell case collapsed in 2007, but you also mentioned a live murder inquiry. Can you give us more information about how active that was?
Alison McInnes LD Committee
15 Dec 2015
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
I am sorry, but if it was already a category A case, how could it be raised any higher?
Alison McInnes LD Committee
15 Dec 2015
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
Were you investigating what you thought was a leak after or prior to the Lord Advocate’s instruction that resources be put into the case? Was it still in the review process that it had been in since 2007?
Alison McInnes LD Committee
15 Dec 2015
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
It would be great if you could. If you will indulge me, convener, I want to ask a final question. Deputy Chief Constable Richardson, you said earlier that only a subscriber check was carried out. Am I right in thinking that such a check applies only to phone records, time and...
Alison McInnes LD Committee
15 Dec 2015
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
But you would know how often the other person was contacted.
Alison McInnes LD Committee
15 Dec 2015
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
Thank you.
Alison McInnes LD Committee
15 Dec 2015
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
Do you agree that there was urgency at Westminster because of the need to protect journalists following attacks on press freedom?
Alison McInnes LD Committee
15 Dec 2015
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
That is a helpful clarification, thank you. DCC Richardson sought to excuse the breaches of the code of practice by saying that the guidelines were introduced at a pace that was aggressive and pressured. Do you agree that it would be reasonable to expect that, if the DCC was ...
Alison McInnes LD Committee
15 Dec 2015
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
On a number of occasions, Police Scotland has had less regard to human rights compliance than I would have liked. I am thinking about what we have had to do in relation to stop and search, and now there is this. Are you comfortable and satisfied that Police Scotland has the ne...
Alison McInnes LD Committee
15 Dec 2015
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
Has Police Scotland been properly advised and has it been able to roll out that advice throughout the organisation, so that it permeates everything that the police do?
Alison McInnes (North East Scotland) (LD) LD Chamber
06 Jan 2016
Undercover Policing
I, too, congratulate Neil Findlay on securing the debate. He has pursued the issue with vigour. I hope that we can all agree that the issue that we are discussing is important. The allegations that have been made against the police officers in question are serious. As we have...
Alison McInnes (North East Scotland) (LD) LD Committee
12 Jan 2016
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
I have a follow-up question on the timeline. On 15 December, I asked Deputy Chief Constable Richardson whether he was investigating what Police Scotland thought was a leak after or prior to the Lord Advocate’s instruction that resources be put into the case. He could not give ...
Alison McInnes LD Committee
12 Jan 2016
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
Were you investigating what you thought was a leak prior to the Lord Advocate’s instruction? 10:15
Alison McInnes LD Committee
12 Jan 2016
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
How early was that?
Alison McInnes LD Committee
12 Jan 2016
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
So at that time there was not an active murder inquiry; it was a review case, as Deputy Chief Constable Richardson said.
Alison McInnes LD Committee
12 Jan 2016
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
Thank you.
Alison McInnes LD Committee
12 Jan 2016
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
Did the senior responsible officer at any time warn that the requested monitoring was against the rules?
Alison McInnes LD Committee
12 Jan 2016
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
Did she express concern about the applications?
Alison McInnes LD Committee
12 Jan 2016
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
She would not have seen them?
Alison McInnes LD Committee
12 Jan 2016
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
How can she authorise them if she has not seen them?
Alison McInnes LD Committee
12 Jan 2016
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
Nevertheless, did the senior responsible officer express concerns about using the power to investigate the particular case?
Alison McInnes LD Committee
12 Jan 2016
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
Was she overruled?
Alison McInnes LD Committee
12 Jan 2016
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
What kind of checks and balances are in the system if someone says that they are not entirely sure that something fits with the new code of conduct? Is there an opportunity for someone else to review the application?
Alison McInnes LD Committee
12 Jan 2016
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
Yes. It clearly was not proportionate or legal. We know that, having seen the IOCCO investigation. Can you remind me when you were instructed to review and produce the action plan?
Alison McInnes LD Committee
12 Jan 2016
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
That was in July and yet you said earlier in response to my colleague Mr Finnie that you were aware of all the press coverage round the particular case. There was speculation in the press for a long time that journalists’ sources were being spied on. Was there any concern in P...
Alison McInnes LD Committee
12 Jan 2016
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
Was there no concern about that speculation in the way that there had been concern earlier about the other speculation about the murder inquiry?
Alison McInnes LD Committee
12 Jan 2016
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
Were you aware of the regular speculation in the press that spying on journalists’ sources was on-going within Police Scotland ahead of your action plan in July?
Alison McInnes LD Committee
12 Jan 2016
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
No, but that one-off case led to fairly regular pieces of journalism in the Scottish press, and as the story unfolded—well ahead of IOCCO coming to a view—part of the story was that the police were spying on journalists’ sources. Is it the case that Police Scotland did not res...
Alison McInnes LD Committee
12 Jan 2016
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
Are you aware of whether the senior responsible officer raised concerns following the press coverage? Did she perhaps increase her briefings on what was appropriate?
Alison McInnes LD Committee
12 Jan 2016
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
We heard on 15 December that there were five authorisations and two of them were internal to the CCU. Can you talk a little bit about how those were granted and the processes involved?
Alison McInnes LD Committee
12 Jan 2016
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
I am trying to work out how the authorisations would have been put in place in the first place. Were they inherited from legacy forces or were they a new set of arrangements?
Alison McInnes LD Committee
12 Jan 2016
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
You spoke earlier about raising the bar back up to where you thought it should have been. Did some things slip in the setting up of the organisation or in a particular unit?
Alison McInnes LD Committee
12 Jan 2016
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
So you are saying that they have six weeks of training and intensive training but they still misinterpreted straightforward guidelines.
Alison McInnes LD Committee
12 Jan 2016
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
Thank you.
Alison McInnes LD Committee
12 Jan 2016
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
You have said that you are not trying to excuse what happened, and I am grateful to you for that. You will agree that Sir Paul Kennedy’s report was a high-profile one. He reported directly to the Prime Minister, it was national news, and there was a lot of discussion in the p...
Alison McInnes LD Committee
12 Jan 2016
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
There have been no further applications. Will you keep an eye on the approach to see whether it works?
Alison McInnes LD Committee
12 Jan 2016
Police Scotland (Interception of Communications)
Good.
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Committee

Justice Committee 01 December 2015

01 Dec 2015 · S4 · Justice Committee
Item of business
Interception of Communications Commissioner’s Office
McInnes, Alison LD North East Scotland Watch on SPTV
I wrote to you last week, convener, after the information was published, to ask that the committee make it a matter of priority that we consider the issue further. The commissioner said that he had uncovered reckless behaviour. It is pretty outrageous that the police force has acted above the law. The protection of a free press is very important in a democracy, and journalists’ sources are as important as the journalists themselves. There has been significant abuse in this case. I urge the committee to think carefully about inviting witnesses. In particular, I would want to hear from the cabinet secretary and from senior police officers.

In the same item of business

The Convener SNP
As members will be aware, the interception of communications commissioner released a statement last week confirming that Police Scotland did not seek the jud...
Elaine Murray (Dumfriesshire) (Lab) Lab
Are the public allowed into the meeting at the moment? They seem to have been shifted outside.
The Convener SNP
Yes, they are. We are not in private.
Alison McInnes (North East Scotland) (LD) LD
I wrote to you last week, convener, after the information was published, to ask that the committee make it a matter of priority that we consider the issue fu...
The Convener SNP
As you know, I responded to your letter and suggested that we also invite the Scottish Police Authority, Her Majesty’s inspectorate of constabulary in Scotla...
Alison McInnes LD
Yes. We need to be absolutely clear who knew what, when they knew it and what action was taken.
Margaret Mitchell (Central Scotland) (Con) Con
I want to back up what Alison McInnes says. It is absolutely essential that we have some transparency and accountability in the matter. We should call those ...
The Convener SNP
We will also have to move our agenda around for the coming weeks, given that we have certain statutory obligations.
Roderick Campbell (North East Fife) (SNP) SNP
It is important to note that although IOCCO said that there had been contraventions in respect of five applications, they related to one investigation. Howev...
The Convener SNP
We want to hear from the full cast.
Elaine Murray Lab
I agree with other members that it is important that we do some work on the matter. I concur with your suggestion, convener, that the SPA should present evid...
John Finnie (Highlands and Islands) (Ind) Ind
I agree with everything that my committee colleagues have said. There is an oversight role for the committee. As Elaine Murray says, people would anticipate ...
The Convener SNP
That is the issue that we must resolve in private: if things move in that direction, we could find ourselves prevented from doing things. If there were any h...
John Finnie Ind
I did not intend to say that I do not think that we should do something vigorously. Rather, I do not want to do anything that would intrude on another locus.
The Convener SNP
That is my point. We really need to discuss the issue fully so that we look at all the other issues that are involved in it. We will do something; it is just...