Commentary on provisions of Act Section 7: Oversight by the Investigatory Powers Commissioner
Section 7(1) amends the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 (IPA) to emphasise the oversight arrangements that will apply to the public authorities’ use of the power to grant criminal conduct authorisations.
	Section 7(2) amends section 229 of the IPA. Subsection (4A) inserts a requirement for the Investigatory Powers Commissioner, when keeping matters under review in accordance with section 229(3)(e) or (g), to pay particular attention to public authorities’ use of the power to grant criminal conduct authorisations under new section 29B.
	Subsection (4B) inserts a requirement for the Investigatory Powers Commissioner, when keeping matters under review in accordance with section 229(4A), to pay particular attention to public authorities’ compliance with the enhanced safeguards that are required for the authorisation of juvenile criminal conduct authorisations and vulnerable adult criminal conduct authorisations. Subsection (4C) provides definitions of juvenile criminal conduct authorisations and vulnerable adult criminal conduct authorisations.
	Section 7(3) amends section 234 of IPA to require the Investigatory Powers Commissioner to include information about public authorities’ use of criminal conduct authorisations in their annual report. This may include information such as statistics on relevant public authorities’ use of the power, the operation of safeguards in relation to authorisations, and errors. The requirement will be subject to the existing protections in the IPA for information that relates to matters such as national security and the prevention or detection of serious crime.