Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with police forces on information and intelligence obtained from Uber.

Home Office officials work with law enforcement regularly to consider what data is operationally valuable to them and how they may lawfully access it. It is vital that police forces have the information they need to detect and prevent crime and keep the public safe.The legal routes available to police forces will depend on the specific circumstances and the types of data sought.

Under Common Law, the police have the power to obtain and store information for policing purposes for the prevention and detection of crime. Schedule 1 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (1984) allows police to access data held in confidence by a third party, provided the data is relevant evidence of an indictable offence and it is authorised by a circuit Judge.

The Investigatory Powers Act 2016 (IPA) sets out the circumstances in which Public Authorities can acquire certain types of data and the safeguards that apply. The IPA is overseen by the independent Investigatory Powers Commissioner.

The Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office collects a wide range of statistics on the use of investigatory powers. Section 234 of the IPA requires the publication of key statistics, including the number of warrants and authorisations issued, given, considered and approved during the year.

The Home Office do not keep information on the number of requests made to individual companies or data sharing agreements. The Police forces themselves, who are operationally independent, would hold this data.