The Investigatory Powers Act 2016 (IPA 2016), now 10 years’ old, is seriously out of date. It provides the main UK legal framework within which the police, the intelligence and security services, and the courts access and use evidence in electronic form. Digital evidence now features in 90% of all crimes, from street incidents to those with more obvious high-tech components. The obsolescence is a function of changes in communications and computer technologies, together with what they have enabled in new social and commercial structures.
The simple response is “a balance must be struck”. But law requires clarity and consistency in application, which means highly detailed legislation. What can and cannot be done in specific circumstances? What warrants and authorisations are required?
In particular, should intercept evidence – eavesdropping on the content of traffic between phones and computers – remain uniquely inadmissible?
Here is a feature article I wrote for Computer Weekly in February 2026.