The Government\u2019s position on the Wilson Doctrine was set out by the Prime Minister in a written ministerial statement made on 4 November 2015.<\/p>
As the Prime Minister made clear, the Wilson Doctrine has never been an absolute bar to the targeted interception of the communications of Members of Parliament or an exemption from the legal regime governing interception. The Doctrine recognised that there could be instances where interception might be necessary.<\/p>
The Prime Minister announced that as matter of policy the PM will be consulted should there ever be a proposal to target any UK Parliamentarian\u2019s communications under a warrant issued by a Secretary of State. This applies to Members of Parliament, members of the House of Lords, the Scottish Parliament, the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Welsh Assembly and UK members of the European Parliament. It applies to all activity authorised by a warrant issued by a Secretary of State: any instance of targeted interception and, electronic surveillance and equipment interference, when undertaken by the Security and Intelligence Agencies. This is in addition to the rigorous safeguards already in the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) and the Code of Practice issued under it which set out a series of robust safeguards for any instance of interception.<\/p>
It is long standing policy of successive Governments neither to confirm nor deny any specific activity by the Security and Intelligence Agencies. Under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 it is an offence for anyone to identify an individual interception warrant or an individual interception that takes place.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/350", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Sir John Hayes"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "South Holland and The Deepings"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Mr John Hayes"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2015-11-16", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "previousAnswerVersion" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/422680/answer/previousversion/25386", "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/350", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Sir John Hayes"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "South Holland and The Deepings"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Mr John Hayes"} } , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2015-11-16T17:10:52.997Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Home Office"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Home Office"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2015-10-20", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Members: Surveillance"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the Wilson Doctrine has been consistently applied to the communications of the hon. Member for Dulwich and West Norwood; and whether that hon. Member or her staff have been subject to surveillance.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4510", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Helen Hayes"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Dulwich and West Norwood"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Helen Hayes"} ], "uin" : "12619"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 1, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }