Decision - Annual Surveillance Report 2025

Brighton and Hove Audit, Standards & General Purposes Committee Decided 27 Jan 2026 for determination GET /api/coverage

Decision maker

Audit, Standards & General Purposes Committee

Report author

David Currie

Published

28 Jan 2026

Reference

7566

As published

the council's own words, unedited

RESOLVED – That the Audit, Standards, and General Purposes Committee: 1) Approves the continued use of covert surveillance as an enforcement tool to prevent and detect crime and disorder investigated by its officers, providing the activity is in line with the Council's Policy and Guidance and the necessity and proportionality rules are stringently applied. 2) Note the surveillance activity undertaken by the authority since the report to Committee in January 2025 as set out in paragraph 3.3 of the report. 3) Approve the continued use of the Policy and Guidance document as set out in Appendix 1 in its updated form.

Parsed from the document

gpt-5.6-luna-2026-07-09 · 13829/1631 tokens · 14219ms · parsed 8 Sep 2026 11:39

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 document sets out how the Council may use directed surveillance, covert human intelligence sources and communications data under RIPA and IPA. It requires activity to be lawful, necessary and proportionate, with authorisation, record-keeping, oversight and safeguards against misuse.

Outcome

approved

Recommendation

Approve the Corporate Policy & Procedures Document on RIPA and IPA, with annual review by the Head of Regulatory Services and approval by elected members.

Financial impact

none stated

Ward affected

city-wide

Decision maker

Elected members

Date in document

1 Jan 2026

Stakeholders named

parsed

Council residents and members of the public whose privacy may be affectedCouncil officers and Authorising OfficersElected membersTrading Standards ServiceExternal agencies working on behalf of the City CouncilInvestigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office

Next steps

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The Head of Regulatory Services will keep the document up to date and amend it as necessary.
The Corporate Director City Operations will maintain the Central Register of authorisations, reviews, renewals, cancellations and rejections.
Authorising Officers must submit relevant forms for inclusion in the Central Register within one week of completion.
The policy will be reviewed annually by the Head of Regulatory Services and approved by elected members.
The Senior Responsible Officer will present annual reports to elected members without identifying specific persons or operations.

Precedents

not built

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