Human rights

The Investigatory Powers Tribunal held that it was lawful, as a matter of domestic law, for a secretary of state to issue directions to telecommunications and internet service providers to supply communications data to MI5 and to GCHQ, and for them to store and examine it. However, in the present case, the regimes for the acquisition, use and deletion by the respondent security services of bulk personal datasets and to allow directions to the public electronic communications networks to transfer bulk communications data to GCHQ and MI5 had not complied with Art 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights prior to avowals made in November and March 2015.