Snooping laws used 1,400 times a day

Interception of phone calls is becoming more regular

Police and other public officials requested information on phone calls and emails an average of 1,381 times a day last year, according to the annual report from the interception of communications commissioner Sir Paul Kennedy.

A total of 504,073 surveillance requests to phone and internet companies were made in 2008 under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, a 44 per cent rise in requests over the past two years.

The requests were data about the communications - such as sender, recipient or time - rather than the content of the messages themselves.

The report shows that most of the requests came from police, but it also covers requests from the intelligence services, while local councils made more than 1,500 requests for data, including lists of telephone numbers dialled by suspects.

Kennedy described intercepting communications as "an invaluable weapon" but said it was becoming increasingly technical and difficult as a result of the greater sophistication of terrorists and criminals and defended councils over their use of the Act.

"It is evident that good use is being made of communications data to investigate the types of offences that cause harm to the public. Local authorities could often make more use of this powerful tool to investigate crimes," he said.

The report reveals that two complaints of improper interception were upheld, only the second and third time such complaints have succeeded. It gave no details of the cases except to say that the intercepted data was destroyed and compensation was paid in one case but not the other.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne echoed the last Information Commissioner's view that the UK is "sleepwalking into a surveillance society".

"The sheer numbers are daunting. It cannot be a justified response to the problems we face in this country that the state is spying on half a million people a year," he said.