Decision - Annual Surveillance Report 2022

Brighton and Hove Audit & Standards Committee Decided 18 Apr 2023 approved GET /api/coverage

Decision maker

Audit & Standards Committee

Report author

Jo Player

Published

9 May 2023

Reference

6928

As published

the council's own words, unedited

1) That Committee 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) That Committee notes the surveillance activity undertaken by the authority since the report to Committee in April 2022 as set out in paragraph 3.3 3) That Committee approves the continued use of the Policy and Guidance document as set out in Appendix 1 in its amended form.

Parsed from the document

gpt-5.6-luna-2026-07-09 · 2049/917 tokens · 7998ms · parsed 9 Sep 2026 12:02

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 Brighton & Hove City Council’s use of covert surveillance powers under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 since April 2022. No surveillance operations had been carried out, and the committee was asked to approve continued use of the powers and an amended policy and guidance document.

Outcome

approved

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 that no surveillance activity had been undertaken since April 2022; and approve the amended 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 and Standards Committee

Date in document

18 Apr 2023

Stakeholders named

parsed

Brighton & Hove City Councillocal residents and members of the publicpeople potentially subject to covert surveillanceMagistratesauthorising officersthe Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office

Next steps

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Continue using covert surveillance where necessary to prevent and detect crime and disorder, subject to the Council’s Policy and Guidance and statutory safeguards.
Continue using the amended Policy and Guidance document.
Ensure any future surveillance activity is authorised by the relevant Authorising Officer, vetted by the Gatekeeper and approved by a Magistrate where required.
Review the Council’s use of RIPA powers and policy annually.

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.