Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001

Anti-terrorism Crime and Security Act 2001 (ATCSA)

• wikipedia: Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001
• Full text of act

Authorisation for GCHQ actions outside the UK

Section 116 amended the Intelligence Services Act 1994 to explicitly allow authorisation for GCHQ to commit acts outside of the UK that that might otherwise be liable for. (For example breaking into the computers of a foreign telecommunications company.)

Retention of Communications Data

Part 11 of the act deals with the retention of communications data. Section 104 gives powers to the Secretary of State to order communications retention. This power would have expired on 2003-12-14, but was extended by SI 2003/3173 to 2005-12-14 and by SI 2005/3335 to 2007-12-14.

• See also Communications data retention, Voluntary Code of Practice on Retention of Communications Data

Links

• Opinion from Ben Emmerson QC