If you’d like to ask me a question, please post it as a comment to this blog and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can!
Auntie
Posted in Auntie's Stickies!
URGENT – CHANGES TO RIPA
With only a couple of weeks to go before the introduction of Judicial supervision of Local Authority RIPA applications, the Court Service have issued guidance as to the required process.
(1) The first stages are as normal : you process the application in the same way that you do currently, getting the decision from one of your Authority’s named authorising officers.
(2) You complete the Court Service form.
(3) You contact the court for a hearing date and send the form and the authorised application to the Court Officer (this will normally be by email).
(4) An officer who is authorised to appear for the Authority attends the hearing to confirm the truth of the application and to answer any questions the Magistrate might have.
(5) A decision is given.
Things you need to do right now :
(1) Familiarise yourself with the form.
(2) Make sure that you have contact details for the court (including out-of-hours details for emergency applications).
(3) Ensure that sufficient investigators have been authorised to appear for the Authority under s.223 of the LGA 1972 to appear in Magistrates’ Court on behalf of the Authority. (The guidance expects investigators, not lawyers, to appear for these applications.)
(4) Update your policies now.
The full guidance is here : http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/counter-terrorism/ripa-forms/local-authority-ripa-guidance/local-authority-england-wales?view=Binary
The form is here : http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/counter-terrorism/ripa-forms/local-authority-ripa-guidance/approval-order-form?view=Binary
If you’d like some training, the ITS course details are here : http://www.its-training-uk.com/InformationSheets/RIPA2012.pdf
Auntie
P.S. : Our colleagues in Scotland do not need Judicial approval for surveillance ; the guidance for Comms Data is here : http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/counter-terrorism/ripa-forms/local-authority-ripa-guidance/local-authority-scotland?view=Binary
Dear Auntie,
I have conduct of a social care fraud case and I would like to examine the cared for person’s bank account because I have evidence that her son, who has power of attorney, is abusing his position, in that he is not declaring all his mother’s income for her care needs. I cannot apply for the bank statements as I have no power to do so under SSFA.
However, I have established that there is also an investigation ongoing by another Authority into an allegation of benefit fraud by persons who are renting the former home of the elderly woman above. She is being cited as the landlord of the property but the rental income is not being declared to the authority administering the social fund.
I know that the other Council cannot apply for the elderly person’s bank statements as they are not investigating her, just the tenants in her property.
Have you any suggestions on how I can move forward with this case. Without sight of her bank accounts I believe I will not be able to progress my case.
Thanks,
Frustrated
Posted in Procedure, Social Care
Dear Auntie,
Hope all is well with you, I am currently reviewing some procedures and I just wanted to confirm a point relating to administrative penalties.
Should an Adpen be given to the claimant by a Senior Officer / Management or can an IO give one of these? We have always used a Senior or Management but I am aware in some authorities an IO will administer these. I am aware that the person giving the Adpen should not have been present in the IUC for a fair and transparent process.
Many thanks for your help with this,
Vicky
Dear Auntie,
I am wondering if you can help clear up something relating to entrapment, we seem to be getting conflicting views as to what is and is not permissible in the course of an investigation.
I was always under the impression that if you planted something in the expectation that someone would take it, this was entrapment as you had enticed them to commit the crime (e.g. putting something in a void council house which you expect a housing officer to take.)
However, we have just had a case which we have been working on with the police where they told us to plant a purse and a camera in a building to see if they get stolen by a suspect following a spate of thefts (which they duly were). Why wouldn’t that be seen as entrapment?
Can we use the evidence we got from planting the evidence in a prosecution?
Your confusedly,
Trapped