Part 3: Authorisations for obtaining communications data Section 62: Restrictions in relation to internet connection records
This section provides restrictions concerning the acquisition of internet connection records that are retained by communications service providers in accordance with a notice given under section 87 of the Act. It requires one or more of three conditions - A, B and C – to be satisfied before data which is, or can only be obtained by processing, an internet connection record can be obtained.
	Condition A is that the data is necessary, for any of the ten purposes in section 61(7), to identify the sender of an online communication. An application for such data will often be for the purposes of IP address resolution - i.e. attributing an internet protocol address to an individual - and the internet service must be known in advance of the application. For example the public authority will be aware of an action – such as the uploading of illegal images - on a particular internet service at a specific time or range of time. The communications data application would be to determine which individual carried out that action at that time.
	Condition B is that the data is to be obtained for any of the statutory purposes other than the prevention or detection of crime; and the data is necessary to identify:
which communication services a person has been using, for example determining whether they are communicating through apps on their phone;
where a person has accessed illegal content, for example an internet service hosting child abuse imagery; or
which internet service is being used and when and how it is being used.
	In respect of (a) and (b) the designated senior officer within a relevant public authority could only approve the application if it was to determine how an individual has been communicating with another individual online, or whether they had been accessing illegal material over a specified timeframe. If approved, a request would then be made to a communications service provider for all internet connection records in that timeframe.
	In respect of (c), the designated senior officer within a relevant public authority could approve the application in order to identify what activities a person had been conducting online. This could include activity to determine whether a vulnerable missing person had been accessing travel sites before their disappearance.
	Condition C is that the data is to be obtained for the prevention or detection of crime and is necessary for the same three investigative purposes described in Condition B. But the crime to be prevented or detected must be serious crime or other relevant crime as defined in subsection (6).
	Subsection (6) defines "other relevant crime" for the purposes of Condition C, setting the thresholds which must be met before internet connections records can be obtained from communications service providers for the purpose of preventing and detecting crime.
	Local authorities are prohibited from acquiring internet connection records for any purpose.
	Subsection (7) defines an internet connection record for the purposes of the Act.