Communications Data (CD) Section 12
As businesses move more of their service offerings online, more of the data that they capture is now falling within the definition of CD.
	Section 12 and Schedule 2 IPA 2016 removed general information gathering powers from public authorities, ensuring that those authorities could only secure the disclosure of CD from a TO, without that TO’s consent, via certain routes. These routes included obtaining a Part 3 IPA 2016 authorisation, a court order or other judicial authorisation, under certain "regulatory powers" relating to the regulation of TOs or Postal Operators or "postal powers", or as secondary data from interception and EI warrants.
	As a result, several bodies with regulatory or supervisory functions, such as those with responsibility for supervising the financial sector and ensuring compliance with Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Regulations, were unable to perform their statutory functions as effectively as they needed to.
	For those regulatory or supervisory bodies with IPA 2016 powers, this issue remained extant where there was an inability to meet the serious crime threshold in the IPA 2016 for the acquisition of certain types of CD in their enquiries. For example, they may be able to acquire CD where there is a serious crime involved with the possibility of a prison sentence of one year or more, but not if the matter can only lead to the imposition of a civil penalty or fine.
	For regulatory or supervisory bodies without IPA 2016 powers this issue remained due to the fact that some of the data for which disclosure was required by those bodies to carry out their statutory functions effectively now fell within the definition of CD and required an IPA 2016 authorisation to acquire it. The changes to legislation in this Act aim to make it easier for these organisations to carry out their lawful functions.
	Section 12 of the IPA 2016 recognised the need for bodies with "regulatory functions" to acquire CD. This was previously limited to organisations such as the Office of Communications (Ofcom) and the Information Commissioner’s Office for their regulation of TOs. This amendment to the IPA 2016 expands the definition of ‘Regulatory Powers’ to include those with wider, statutory regulatory or supervisory responsibilities, with the intention of returning their general information gathering powers and enabling them to gather the information they need to perform their lawful functions and, explicitly, where the CD is not being acquired in the course of a criminal investigation.
	Where the purpose of the investigation is in the course of a criminal investigation, the Part 3 IPA 2016 authorisation process should still be followed by those organisations authorised under Schedule 4 or via some other judicial authorisation route.
	The acquisition of CD using non-IPA 2016 powers by these public authorities for the purposes of regulation or supervision, but which then is subsequently used for criminal prosecution, will be subject to oversight by the IPC.
	The bodies who may be permitted to use their non-IPA 2016 powers for the purposes of regulation or supervision are the public authorities listed within Schedule 4 of the IPA 2016 together with those currently listed and who may be later added, by regulations, to new Schedule 2A.