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England and Wales High Court (Administrative Court) Decisions |
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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> England and Wales High Court (Administrative Court) Decisions >> Privacy International, R (On the Application Of) v Investigatory Powers Tribunal [2017] EWHC 114 (Admin) (02 February 2017) URL: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2017/114.html Cite as: [2017] EWHC 114 (Admin), [2017] 3 All ER 1127 |
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QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
DIVISIONAL COURT
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL |
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B e f o r e :
(SIR BRIAN LEVESON)
MR JUSTICE LEGGATT
____________________
THE QUEEN on the application of PRIVACY INTERNATIONAL |
Claimant |
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- and – |
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INVESTIGATORY POWERS TRIBUNAL |
Defendant |
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- and - |
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(1) SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS (2) GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATIONS HEADQUARTERS |
Interested Parties |
____________________
Jonathan Glasson Q.C. (instructed by the Government Legal Department) for the Defendant
James Eadie Q.C. and Kate Grange (instructed by the Government Legal Department) for the Interested Parties
Hearing date: 2 November 2016
____________________
Crown Copyright ©
Sir Brian Leveson P :
The Structure and Functions of the IPT
"The decisions of the Tribunal (including any decisions as to their jurisdiction) shall not be subject to appeal or liable to be questioned in any court."
Similarly, section 5(4) of the 1989 Act and section 9(4) of the 1994 Act provide:
"The decisions of the Tribunal and the Commissioner under that Schedule (including decisions as to their jurisdictions) shall not be subject to appeal or liable to be questioned in any court."
"The Tribunal's powers are primarily investigatory, even though it does also have an adjudicative role. Parliament has provided that there should be no appeal from the tribunal except as provided by the Secretary of State."
"(1) There shall, for the purpose of exercising the jurisdiction conferred on them by this section, be a tribunal consisting of such number of members as Her Majesty may by Letters Patent appoint.
(2) The jurisdiction of the tribunal shall be—
(a) to be the only appropriate tribunal for the purposes of section 7 of the Human Rights Act 1998 in relation to any proceedings under subsection (1)(a) of that section (proceedings for actions incompatible with Convention rights) which fall within subsection (3) of this section;
(b) to consider and determine any complaints made to them which, in accordance with subsection (4), are complaints for which the tribunal is the appropriate forum;
(c) to consider and determine any reference to them by any person that he has suffered detriment as a consequence of any prohibition or restriction, by virtue of section 17, on his relying in, or for the purposes of, any civil proceedings on any matter; and
(d) to hear and determine any other such proceedings falling within subsection (3) as may be allocated to them in accordance with provision made by the Secretary of State by order.
(3) Proceedings fall within this subsection if—
(a) they are proceedings against any of the intelligence services …
(b) they are proceedings against any other person in respect of any conduct, proposed conduct, by or on behalf of any of those services;
(c) they are proceedings brought by virtue of section 55(4); or
(d) they are proceedings relating to the taking place in any challengeable circumstances of any conduct falling within subsection (5).
(4) The tribunal is the appropriate forum for any complaint if it is a complaint by a person who is aggrieved by any conduct falling within subsection (5) which he believes—
(a) to have taken place in relation to him, to any of his property, to any communications sent by or to him, or intended for him, or to his use of any postal service, telecommunications service or telecommunication system; and
(b) to have taken place in challengeable circumstances or to have been carried out by or on behalf of any of the intelligence services.
(5) Subject to subsection (6), conduct falls within this subsection if (whenever it occurred) it is–
(a) conduct by or on behalf of any of the intelligence services;
(b) conduct for or in connection with the interception of communications in the course of their transmission by means of a postal service or telecommunication system;
(c) conduct to which Chapter II of Part I applies;
(ca) the carrying out of surveillance by a foreign police or customs officer (within the meaning of section 76A);
(d) other conduct to which Part II applies;
(e) the giving of a notice under section 49 or any disclosure or use of a key to protected information;
(f) any entry on or interference with property or any interference with wireless telegraphy.
(6) For the purposes only of subsection (3), nothing mentioned in paragraph (d) or (f) of subsection (5) shall be treated as falling within that subsection unless it is conduct by or on behalf of a person holding any office, rank or position with–
(a) any of the intelligence services;
(b) any of Her Majesty's forces;
(c) any police force;
(ca) the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner;
(d) the National Crime Agency;
(f) the Commissioners for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs;
and section 48(5) applies for the purposes of this subsection as it applies for the purposes of Part II.
(7) For the purposes of this section conduct takes place in challengeable circumstances if–
(a) it takes place with the authority, or purported authority, of anything falling within subsection (8); or
(b) the circumstances are such that (whether or not there is such authority) it would not have been appropriate for the conduct to take place without it, or at least without proper consideration having been given to whether such authority should be sought;
but, subject to subsection (7ZA), conduct does not take place in challengeable circumstances to the extent that it is authorised by, or takes place with the permission of, a judicial authority.
(7ZA) The exception in subsection (7) so far as conduct is authorised by, or takes place with the permission of, a judicial authority does not include conduct authorised by an approval given under section 23A or 32A.
(7A) For the purposes of this section conduct also takes place in challengeable circumstances if it takes place, or purports to take place, under section 76A.
(8) The following fall within this subsection–
(a) an interception warrant or a warrant under the Interception of Communications Act 1985;
(b) an authorisation or notice under Chapter II of Part I of this Act;
(c) an authorisation under Part II of this Act or under any enactment contained in or made under an Act of the Scottish Parliament which makes provision equivalent to that made by that Part;
(d) a permission for the purposes of Schedule 2 to this Act;
(e) a notice under section 49 of this Act; or
(f) an authorisation under section 93 of the Police Act 1997.
(9) Schedule 3 (which makes further provision in relation to the Tribunal) shall have effect.
(10) In this section–
(a) references to a key and to protected information shall be construed in accordance with section 56;
(b) references to the disclosure or use of a key to protected information taking place in relation to a person are references to such a disclosure or use taking place in a case in which that person has had possession of the key or of the protected information; and
(c) references to the disclosure of a key to protected information include references to the making of any disclosure in an intelligible form (within the meaning of section 56) of protected information by a person who is or has been in possession of the key to that information;
and the reference in paragraph (b) to a person's having possession of a key or of protected information shall be construed in accordance with section 56.
(11) In this section "judicial authority" means–
(a) any judge of the High Court or of the Crown Court or any Circuit Judge;
(b) any judge of the High Court of Justiciary or any sheriff;
(c) any justice of the peace;
(d) any county court judge or resident magistrate in Northern Ireland;
(e) any person holding any such judicial office as entitles him to exercise the jurisdiction of a judge of the Crown Court or of a justice of the peace."
"We do not accept that the holding of a closed hearing, as we have carried out, is unfair. It accords with the statutory procedure, and facilitates the process referred to at [45] and [46] above. This enables a combination of open and closed hearings which both gives the fullest and most transparent opportunity for hearing full arguments inter partes on hypothetical or actual facts, with as much as possible heard in public, and preserves the public interest and national security."
"Having regard to its conclusions in respect of Article 8 and Article 6§1 above, the Court considers that the IPT offered to the applicant an effective remedy insofar as his complaint was directed towards the alleged interception of his communications."
"2.7 The Closed Material Procedures have been introduced in the civil courts in order to handle civil cases where the Government may need to rely on sensitive material to justify an executive action. As a judicial body handling similarly sensitive material, the Tribunal's policies and procedures have been carefully developed and have evolved with the aim of balancing the principles of open justice for the complainant with a need to protect sensitive material. The approach of hearing a case on the basis of assumed facts has proved to be of great value.
2.8 Assumed facts: This means that, without making any finding on the substance of the complaint, where points of law arise the Tribunal may be prepared to assume for the sake of argument that the facts asserted by the claimant are true; and then, acting upon that assumption, decide whether they would constitute lawful or unlawful conduct. This has enabled hearings to take place in public with full adversarial argument as to whether the conduct alleged, if it had taken place, would have been lawful and proportionate. Exceptionally, and where necessary in the interests of public safety or national security, the Tribunal has sat in closed (private) hearings, with the assistance of Counsel to the Tribunal, to ensure that points of law or other matters advanced by the complainants are considered."
"(8) Except to such extent as the Secretary of State may by order otherwise provide, determinations, awards, orders and other decisions of the Tribunal (including decisions as to whether they have jurisdiction) shall not be subject to appeal or be liable to be questioned in any court.
(9) It shall be the duty of the Secretary of State to secure that there is at all times an order under subsection (8) in force allowing for an appeal to a court against any exercise by the Tribunal of their jurisdiction under section 65(2)(c) or (d).
(10) The provision that may be contained in an order under subsection (8) may include—
(a) provision for the establishment and membership of a tribunal or body to hear appeals;
(b) the appointment of persons to that tribunal or body and provision about the remuneration and allowances to be payable to such persons and the expenses of the tribunal;
(c) the conferring of jurisdiction to hear appeals on any existing court or tribunal; and
(d) any such provision in relation to an appeal under the order as corresponds to provision that may be made by rules under section 69 in relation to proceedings before the Tribunal, or to complaints or references made to the Tribunal.
(11) The Secretary of State shall not make an order under subsection (8) unless a draft of the order has been laid before Parliament and approved by a resolution of each House."
Ouster clauses
"The break-through that the Anisminic case made was the recognition by the majority of this House that if a tribunal whose jurisdiction was limited by statute or subordinate legislation mistook the law applicable to the facts as it had found them, it must have asked itself the wrong question, i.e., one into which it was not empowered to inquire and so had no jurisdiction to determine. Its purported 'determination,' not being 'a determination' within the meaning of the empowering legislation, was accordingly a nullity."
"Parliament can by the use of appropriate language provide that a decision on a question of law whether taken by a judge or by some other form of tribunal shall be considered as final and not be subject to challenge either by way of appeal or judicial review."
"Although it is plain that Parliament intended that a lawful decision of the election court must be final in all respects, we do not consider that Parliament intended to provide that a decision that had been made on a wrong interpretation of the law could not be challenged. An express provision to that effect would have been required."
"But that risk is much higher in the specialist tribunal jurisdictions, however expert and high-powered they may be. As a superior court of record, the Upper Tribunal is empowered to set precedent, often in a highly technical and fast moving area of law. … It may seem only a remote possibility that the High Court or Court of Appeal might take a different view. Indeed, both tiers may be applying precedent set by the High Court or Court of Appeal which they think it unlikely that a higher court would disturb. The same question of law will not reach the High Court or the Court of Appeal by a different route. There is therefore a real risk of the Upper Tribunal becoming in reality the final arbiter of law which is not what Parliament has provided."
"It is elementary that any attempt to oust altogether the High Court's supervisory jurisdiction over public authorities is repugnant to the constitution. But statutory measures which confide the jurisdiction to a judicial body of like standing and authority to that of the High Court, but which operates subject to special procedures apt for the subject matter in hand, may well be constitutionally inoffensive. The IPT, whose membership I have described, offers with respect no cause for concern on this score."
"There are, moreover, powerful other pointers in the same direction. Principal amongst these is the self-evident need to safeguard the secrecy and security of sensitive intelligence material, not least with regard to the working of the intelligence services. It is to this end, and to protect the "neither confirm nor deny" policy (equally obviously essential to the effective working of the services), that the Rules are as restrictive as they are regarding the closed nature of the IPT's hearings and the limited disclosure of information to the complainant (both before and after the IPT's determination). There are, however, a number of counterbalancing provisions both in RIPA and the Rules to ensure that proceedings before the IPT are (in the words of section 69(6)(a)) "properly heard and considered". Section 68(6) imposes on all who hold office under the Crown and many others too the widest possible duties to provide information and documents to the IPT as they may require. Public interest immunity could never be invoked against such a requirement. So too sections 57(3) and 59(3) impose respectively upon the Interception of Communications Commissioner and the Intelligence Services Commissioner duties to give the IPT "all such assistance" as it may require. Section 18(1)(c) disapplies the otherwise highly restrictive effect of section 17 (regarding the existence and use of intercept material) in the case of IPT proceedings. And rule 11(1) allows the IPT to "receive evidence in any form, and [to] receive evidence that would not be admissible in a court of law". All these provisions in their various ways are designed to ensure that, even in the most sensitive of intelligence cases, disputes can be properly determined. None of them are available in the courts. This was the point that so strongly attracted Dyson LJ in favour of B's case in the court below. As he pithily put it, ante, p 19, para 48:
"It seems to me to be inherently unlikely that Parliament intended to create an elaborate set of rules to govern proceedings against an intelligence service under section 7 of the 1998 Act in the IPT and yet contemplated that such proceedings might be brought before the courts without any rules."
"Nor does Anisminic assist A. The ouster clause there under consideration purported to remove any judicial supervision of a determination by an inferior tribunal as to its own jurisdiction. Section 65(2)(a) does no such thing. Parliament has not ousted judicial scrutiny of the acts of the intelligence services; it has simply allocated that scrutiny (as to section 7(1)(a) HRA proceedings) to the IPT.
"… True it is that section 67(8) of RIPA constitutes an ouster (and, indeed, unlike that in Anisminic, an unambiguous ouster) of any jurisdiction of the courts over the IPT. But that is not the provision in question here and in any event, as A recognises, there is no constitutional (or article 6) requirement for any right of appeal from an appropriate tribunal."
24. The position here is analogous to that in Farley v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (No 2) [2006] 1 WLR 1817 where the statutory provision in question provided that, on an application by the Secretary of State for a liability order in respect of a person liable to pay child support, "the court … shall not question the maintenance assessment under which the payments of child support maintenance fall to be made". Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead, with whom the other members of the committee agreed, observed, at para 18:
'The need for a strict approach to the interpretation of an ouster provision … was famously confirmed in the leading case of Anisminic … This strict approach, however, is not appropriate if an effective means of challenging the validity of a maintenance assessment is provided elsewhere. Then section 33(4) is not an ouster provision. Rather, it is part of a statutory scheme which allocates jurisdiction to determine the validity of an assessment and decide whether the defendant is a 'liable person' to a court other than the magistrates' court.'"
"(1) A relevant person may appeal on a point of law against any determination of the Tribunal of a kind mentioned in section 68(4) or any decision of the Tribunal of a kind mentioned in section 68(4C).
(2) Before making a determination or decision which might be the subject of an appeal under this section, the Tribunal must specify the court which is to have jurisdiction to hear the appeal (the relevant "appellate court").
(3) This court is whichever of the following courts appears to the Tribunal to be the most appropriate-
(a) the Court of Appeal in England and Wales,
(b) the Court of Session
(4) The Secretary of State may by regulations, with the consent of the Northern Ireland Assembly, amend subsection (3) so as to add the Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland to the list of courts mentioned there.
(5) The Secretary of State may by regulations specify criteria to be applied by the tribunal in making decisions under subsection (2) as to the identity of the relevant appellate court.
(6) An appeal under this section –
(a) is to be heard by the relevant appellate court, but
(b) may not be made without leave of the Tribunal or, if that is refused, of the relevant appellate court.
(7) The Tribunal or relevant appellate court must not grant leave to appeal unless it considers that –
(a) the appeal would raise an important point of principle or practice, or
(b) there is another compelling reason for granting leave.
(8) In this section – "relevant appellate court" has the meaning given by subsection (2), "relevant person", in relation to any proceedings, complaint or reference, means the complainant or –
(a) in the case of proceedings, the respondent,
(b) in the case of a complaint, the person complained against, and
(c) in the case of a reference, any public authority to whom the reference relates."
Discussion
"The principle of legality means that Parliament must squarely confront what it is doing and accept the political cost. Fundamental rights cannot be overridden by general or ambiguous words."
Leggatt J :
"The statute invests with standing and powers akin to those of the High Court a body which would otherwise not possess them precisely because it and the High Court are not, and are not meant to be, courts of co-ordinate jurisdiction."
See R (Cart) v Upper Tribunal [2011] QB 120 at [20].
"Statutory provisions which seek to limit the ordinary jurisdiction of the court have a long history. No case has been cited in which any other form of words limiting the jurisdiction of the court has been held to protect a nullity."
Note 1 There is a further exception, not relevant for present purposes, concerning derogations by the UK from article 5(1) of the ECHR. [Back]