WALSALL SNOOPERS CALLED TO ACCOUNT

26-06-2006

Walsall Council is being asked to reveal the full details of its snooping record after admitting it used a law designed to combat terrorism to spy on staff.

Democratic Labour Councillor Pete Smith discovered in February that the local authority was maintaining a Big Brother-style watch on workers using the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.

Cabinet member A E Griffiths admitted, “In the last 2 years there have been 10 instances of approved employee surveillance, 5 relating to sickness absence”.

Smith now wants to find out more details, and has tabled a question for Monday’s Council meeting demanding to know “the general nature of and the total number of surveillance authorisations that have been made by Walsall Council officials since the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act came into force.”

The Chair of the Local Government Association Sir Simon Milton warned on Monday that Councils should only use RIPA as a last resort.

He said, "Save in the most unusual and extreme of circumstances, it is inappropriate to use these powers for trivial matters.  By their nature, surveillance powers are never to be used lightly."

Meanwhile Smith will also seek answers to a further six questions on a wide range of subjects, as he fulfils his self-appointed role as a watchdog of the town’s political establishment.

He told The Stirrer, “I hope that I will be get the opportunity to ask them all, given that only 30 minutes is allocated ; for Members' questions and since the constitution was changed last month in an attempt to curtail questions.”