ABSTRACT
This chapter presents some of the difficulties involved in regulating the use of surveillance, not least the sheer range of activities it encompasses and the problems of definition the creates. It provides an overview of the position in England and Wales and examines relevant administrative rules, court decisions and legislation. The chapter discusses a few comments on a rather different form of surveillance which is as yet scarcely regulated at all: the use of closed circuit television in public places. From the police perspective, the advantage of the vacuum in legislation has been considerable freedom of action, especially in cases where the purpose of surveillance is the gathering of intelligence rather than of evidence for a prosecution. The significance of straightforward telephone taps has undoubtedly been reduced by advances in technology and in surveillance techniques which fall outside the remit of the Interception of Communications Act.
