Part 9: Miscellaneous and general provisions Chapter 1: Miscellaneous Section 252: National security notices
This section provides for the Secretary of State to give a national security notice to any telecommunications operator in the UK requiring the operator to take steps appearing to the Secretary of State to be necessary in the interests of national security. A national security notice may only be given if the conduct required by the notice is necessary and proportionate, and where the decision to give a notice has been approved by a Judicial Commissioner.
	The section does not list the things that a national security notice might require an operator to do, but subsection (3) gives examples of the types of things. A notice can, for example, require an operator to provide services or facilities to help the intelligence service carry out its functions more effectively or more safely.
	Subsection (5) stipulates that the notice cannot be used for the primary purpose of requiring an operator to do something for which a warrant or authorisation is required under this Act or any of the other Acts listed. The other Acts are ones that provide for investigatory powers. Where a notice requires the taking of steps for which a warrant or authorisation would otherwise be required, such a warrant or authorisation is needed regardless of the notice. This means that a national security notice cannot be used to avoid the need for a warrant or authorisation.