To provide an update to the Committee about the operation of Regulatory Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) within the Council.

The Head of Legal Service & Deputy Monitoring Officer introduced the report. The following principal points were noted.

·       The policy had not been used by the Council in the last year.

·       The policy was updated and agreed by the committee in October 2024.  An officer had reviewed the policy since and has indicated there is no further changes required.

·       It was recommended that updates as noted at point 8 of the report be delegated to the monitoring officer and that the committee only received a report on the use of RIPA as and when it had been utilised.

Resolved

The committee delegates certain updates to the RIPA Policy to the Monitoring Officer as set out in the report and agrees that further reports about the use of RIPA need only to be reported once RIPA has been utilised by the Council.