Julian Milford acted for the Government in the recent joined cases Big Brother Watch v UK, 10 Human Rights Organisations v UK, and Bureau of Investigative Journalism v UK. The European Court of Human Rights handed down its long-awaited judgment in these high-profile cases about state surveillance on 13 September 2018. It held that bulk interception of communications was in principle permissible, but that the UK’s legal regime for bulk interception of communications under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 failed to comply in certain respects with Articles 8 and 10 ECHR, as did the legal regime for access to communications data under RIPA. It also held that the UK’s arrangements for sharing intelligence with or receiving intelligence from third party states were compatible with the Convention.
