ABSTRACT
The government’s response to the outcome of Malone v United Kingdom (1984), in which the absence of statutory authority for intercept warrants was held to have violated Article 8 of the Convention on Human Rights, was to pass the Interception of Communications Act 1985. The Interception of Communications Act 1985 made it a criminal offence to intentionally intercept a communication and provided statutory power to the Secretary of State to issue warrants ‘in the interests of national security, or for the purpose of preventing or detecting serious crime or for the purpose of safeguarding the economic well-being of the United Kingdom’.
