Part 6: Bulk warrants Chapter 1: Bulk interception warrants Section 138: Power to issue bulk interception warrants
This section sets out the power to issue bulk interception warrants. The Secretary of State may issue a bulk interception warrant only where it is necessary and proportionate, for one or more specified statutory purposes. Subsection (1) makes clear that the interests of national security must always be one of those purposes.
	Subsection (1) also requires that the Secretary of State must consider that each of the operational purposes specified in the warrant is a purpose for which the examination of intercepted content or secondary data is or may be necessary. Operational purposes limit the purposes for which data collected under a warrant can be selected for examination and no official is permitted to select data for examination other than as permitted by these purposes. Section 142 sets out more detail about operational purposes.
	This subsection makes clear that the operational purposes specified on a warrant must relate to one or more of the statutory grounds specified on the warrant. For example, if a bulk interception warrant is issued in the interests of national security and for the purpose of preventing and detecting serious crime, every operational purpose specified on that warrant must be necessary for one or both of these broader statutory grounds.
	In addition, subsection (1) makes clear that the Secretary of State’s decision to issue the warrant must be approved by a Judicial Commissioner.
	An application for a bulk interception warrant may only be made by one of the three intelligence services.