Decision - Annual Surveillance Report

Brighton and Hove Audit & Standards Committee Decided 19 Apr 2022 approved GET /api/coverage

Decision maker

Audit & Standards Committee

Report author

Jo Player

Published

21 Apr 2022

Reference

6587

As published

the council's own words, unedited

1) That the continued use of covert surveillance be approved as an enforcement tool to prevent and detect crime and disorder investigated by officers, providing the activity is in line with the Council's Policy and Guidance and the necessity and proportionality rules are stringently applied. 2) That the surveillance activity undertaken by the authority since the report to Committee in March 2021 as set out in paragraph 3.3 is noted. 3) That the updated Policy and Guidance document set out in Appendix 1 be approved.

Parsed from the document

gpt-5.6-luna-2026-07-09 · 1904/637 tokens · 6176ms · parsed 9 Sep 2026 11:51

Everything below was read out of a PDF by a model It is useful and it is not authoritative. The document it came from is linked in the rail, and where the two disagree the document is right.

The report reviewed the Council’s use of covert surveillance powers under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 since March 2021 and introduced updated policy guidance. It recommended continuing to use covert surveillance where necessary and proportionate, noting that one operation had taken place during the period.

Recommendation

Approve the continued use of covert surveillance as an enforcement tool subject to the Council’s Policy and Guidance and strict necessity and proportionality requirements; note the surveillance activity undertaken since March 2021; and approve the updated Policy and Guidance document in Appendix 1.

Financial impact

There are no financial implications arising from this report; any covert surveillance undertaken needs to be met from within current budget resources.

Ward affected

city-wide

Decision maker

Audit & Standards Committee

Date in document

19 Apr 2022

Stakeholders named

parsed

Audit & Standards CommitteeCouncil officersMagistratesMembers of the publicPeople subject to covert surveillance

Next steps

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Continue using covert surveillance only where necessary, proportionate and consistent with the Council’s Policy and Guidance.
Apply the updated Policy and Guidance document.
Continue annual review of the authority’s use of RIPA by the Committee.

Precedents

not built

"Decided elsewhere" is not built Finding the same decision in other councils needs semantic matching over decision text, which is part of the search rewrite. Until then, the council's own decisions list is the way through.