FOI release

Investigatory Powers

Case reference FOI2026/01433

Received 28 August 2026

Published 11 September 2026

Request

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please provide information regarding the council's use of surveillance and investigatory powers under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) and the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 (IPA). Please provide the information covering every financial year since 2019, and up to the present (including the current financial year to date). Please tell me: 1. Authorisation Volumes The total number of RIPA/IPA authorisations granted by the council in each specified financial year, broken down by power type: * Directed Surveillance * Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS) * Acquisition of Communications Data 1. Offence / Activity Categories For each granted authorisation, the general category of offence or matter being investigated (e.g., housing fraud, anti-social behaviour, fly-tipping, trading standards/underage sales, benefit fraud, license breaches). Note: To avoid identifying individuals, broad operational categories are requested rather than specific case file names or addresses. 1. Surveillance Tactics & Deployed Means An overview of the generic tactics or equipment deployed under these authorisations (e.g., static camera observation, mobile visual surveillance, social media monitoring, covert audio recording, undercover officers/informants). 1. Magistrates’ Court Approvals The number of applications submitted to the Magistrates’ Court for judicial approval, and how many were: * Approved * Refused * Approved with modifications 1. Non-RIPA / Covert Activity Whether the council maintains a central register or log for non-RIPA surveillance (e.g., covert monitoring or social media research conducted outside formal RIPA authorisations due to falling below statutory crime thresholds). If so, please state how many non-RIPA surveillance operations were logged during the specified period. 1. IPCO Oversight & Policy * The date of the most recent inspection or review carried out by the Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office (IPCO). * The date your internal RIPA Policy was last reviewed or updated by elected members/committee. Guidance on Disclosures (Section 40 & Section 31): To assist in processing this request within the statutory cost and time limits: * If full details of an individual operation cannot be disclosed to prevent identifying living individuals (Section 40) or harming ongoing law enforcement investigations (Section 31), please provide aggregated numeric data or generalized categorisations. * If any individual question exceeds the cost limits under Section 12, please prioritize Questions 1, 2, and 4.

Response

Our Waste and Street Scene Team, Environmental Health Team, Fraud and
Compliance Team, Community Safety Team and Planning Enforcement Team have all
confirmed that they hold no information in relation to this request.

Documents

There are no documents for this release.

This is Tunbridge Wells Borough Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.