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UK to use 2008 Counter-Terrorism Act to use anything seized for any intelligence purpose
We now see what the strategy of the UK intelligence services is: they say the 2008 Counter-Terrorism Act allows anyone to pass any information to them, even if it's confidential, and even if another act or court says they must not.
Here's their argument:
The detailed judgment also gave further clues about what the UK authorities may be doing with the data. Government lawyers have told the court that under the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 "once material has been lawfully obtained pursuant to schedule 7, it may be disclosed to intelligence services who may then use it for their statutory purposes".
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/23/government-david-miranda-data
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/23/government-david-miranda-data
That's Schedule 7 of the 2000 Terrorism Act - the one that says anything can be seized at a port to help the officers at the port determine if the person who has it is linked with terrorism. But once they've got it, the government claims it can then be given to the intelligence services to do whatever they want with under their 'statutory purposes', which comes from section 19 of the 2008 act:
19 Disclosure and the intelligence services
(1)A person may disclose information to any of the intelligence services for the purposes of the exercise by that service of any of its functions.
(2)Information obtained by any of the intelligence services in connection with the exercise of any of its functions may be used by that service in connection with the exercise of any of its other functions.
(3)Information obtained by the Security Service for the purposes of any of its functions may be disclosed by it—
(a)for the purpose of the proper discharge of its functions,
(b)for the purpose of the prevention or detection of serious crime, or
(c)for the purpose of any criminal proceedings.
(4)Information obtained by the Secret Intelligence Service for the purposes of any of its functions may be disclosed by it—
(a)for the purpose of the proper discharge of its functions,
(b)in the interests of national security,
(c)for the purpose of the prevention or detection of serious crime, or
(d)for the purpose of any criminal proceedings.
(5)Information obtained by GCHQ for the purposes of any of its functions may be disclosed by it—
(a)for the purpose of the proper discharge of its functions, or
(b)for the purpose of any criminal proceedings.
(6)A disclosure under this section does not breach—
(a)any obligation of confidence owed by the person making the disclosure, or
(b)any other restriction on the disclosure of information (however imposed).
(7)The provisions of this section are subject to section 20 (savings and other supplementary provisions).
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2008/28/part/1/crossheading/disclosure-of-information-and-the-intelligence-services
(1)A person may disclose information to any of the intelligence services for the purposes of the exercise by that service of any of its functions.
(2)Information obtained by any of the intelligence services in connection with the exercise of any of its functions may be used by that service in connection with the exercise of any of its other functions.
(3)Information obtained by the Security Service for the purposes of any of its functions may be disclosed by it—
(a)for the purpose of the proper discharge of its functions,
(b)for the purpose of the prevention or detection of serious crime, or
(c)for the purpose of any criminal proceedings.
(4)Information obtained by the Secret Intelligence Service for the purposes of any of its functions may be disclosed by it—
(a)for the purpose of the proper discharge of its functions,
(b)in the interests of national security,
(c)for the purpose of the prevention or detection of serious crime, or
(d)for the purpose of any criminal proceedings.
(5)Information obtained by GCHQ for the purposes of any of its functions may be disclosed by it—
(a)for the purpose of the proper discharge of its functions, or
(b)for the purpose of any criminal proceedings.
(6)A disclosure under this section does not breach—
(a)any obligation of confidence owed by the person making the disclosure, or
(b)any other restriction on the disclosure of information (however imposed).
(7)The provisions of this section are subject to section 20 (savings and other supplementary provisions).
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2008/28/part/1/crossheading/disclosure-of-information-and-the-intelligence-services
The parts I've emboldened basically say that anyone can hand anything over to the intelligence services, and there is no restriction on this - 'however imposed'. Which they are going to use to say that, even though the court has said the data they seized from Miranda can only be used for the purpose of determining if he's linked to terrorism, the court cannot impose such a restriction on the intelligence services.
The intelligence services are above all other laws.
