A Joint Committee on Human Rights report, ‘Legislative scrutiny: Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill’, published this week, has delivered a devastating verdict on the Bill, as it stands.
The Bill, which was introduced in the House of Commons in September, provides a statutory basis for a wide range of public authorities to authorise informants, agents and undercover officers to engage in criminal conduct. Where an authorisation has been given, a prosecutor is unlikely to proceed with a prosecution after weighing up the public interest.
The committee concluded the Bill lacks the adequate safeguards and oversight to prevent it being abused.
Harriet Harman QC MP, chair of the committee, said: ‘This Bill raises major human rights concerns.
‘It permits officials to secretly authorise crimes on the streets of the UK and abroad. There should be added to the Bill clear limits on the scale and type of criminality which can be authorised.
‘The power to authorise crime should be restricted to the public authorities whose role it is to combat serious crime and protect national security and not include bodies such as the Food Standards Agency or the Gambling Commission.’
In particular, the committee warned there was no express limit in the Bill on the type of criminal conduct that could be authorised, raising the ‘abhorrent possibility of serious crimes such as rape, murder or torture being carried out under an authorisation’.
‘Rigorous and effective oversight’ was required for a power as exceptional as the authorisation of criminal conduct, granting criminal and civil immunity. While the Investigatory Powers Commissioner provided oversight, this did not go far enough, the committee said. ‘As is required for other investigatory powers, authorising a person to engage in criminal conduct should require prior judicial approval.’
