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United Kingdom Statutory Instruments


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STATUTORY INSTRUMENTS


2007 No. 2199

ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS

The Data Retention (EC Directive) Regulations 2007

  Made 26th July 2007 
  Coming into force 1st October 2007 

The Secretary of State, being a Minister designated[1] for the purposes of section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972[2] in respect of matters relating to electronic communications, in exercise of the powers conferred upon him by that section, makes the following Regulations (a draft of which has been approved by each House of Parliament):

Citation and commencement
     1. These Regulations may be cited as the Data Retention (EC Directive) Regulations 2007 and shall come into force on 1st October 2007.

Interpretation
    
2. In these Regulations—

Application
     3. —(1) Subject to paragraph (2), these Regulations shall apply to all public communications providers.

    (2) These Regulations shall not apply, except where written notice has been given by the Secretary of State, to a public communications provider whose data are retained in the United Kingdom in accordance with these Regulations by another public communications provider.

    (3) If only a part of that data is so retained by another public communications provider, these Regulations apply to the public communications provider only with respect to the data not so retained.

    (4) A written notice must be given or published in such a manner as the Secretary of State considers appropriate for bringing it to the attention of the public communications provider or the category of providers to whom it applies and must specify the extent to which and the date from which these Regulations are to apply.

Obligation to retain data
    
4. —(1) Subject to paragraphs (4) and (5), the data specified in regulation 5 must be retained to the extent that those data are generated or processed by a public communications provider in the process of supplying the communications services concerned.

    (2) The data specified in regulation 5 are to be retained by the public communications provider for a period of 12 months from the date of the communication.

    (3) The duty to retain data under paragraph (1) includes the retention of the data specified in regulation 5 relating to an unsuccessful call attempt where those data are generated or processed, and stored, in the United Kingdom by a public communications provider in the process of supplying the communication services concerned.

    (4) These Regulations do not require data relating to unconnected calls to be retained.

    (5) These Regulations do not require data derived from Internet access, Internet e-mail or Internet telephony to be retained.

Data to be retained
    
5. —(1) The following data concerning fixed network telephony and mobile telephony generated in the United Kingdom must be retained in accordance with regulation 4(1):

    (2) The following data concerning mobile telephony must be retained in accordance with regulation 4(1):

Data security
    
6. The following data security principles shall apply with respect to data retained in accordance with regulation 4(1):

Storage requirements for retained data
    
7. The data specified in regulation 5 shall be retained in accordance with regulation 4(1) in such a way that the data retained can be transmitted without undue delay in response to requests.

Supervisory authority
    
8. The Information Commissioner [6], as the Supervisory Authority designated for the purposes of Article 9 of Directive 2006/24/EC[7] shall monitor the application of these Regulations with respect to the security of stored data.

Statistics
     9. —(1) A public communications provider shall, as soon as practicable after 31st March in any year, provide the Secretary of State with the statistical information to which paragraph (2) applies in respect of the period of 12 months ending on that date.

    (2) The statistical information to which this paragraph applies is—

    (3) The Secretary of State may, by notice given in writing to the public communications provider, vary the date specified in paragraph (1), with such transitional arrangements as may be necessary in consequence of the variation.

Payment
    
10. —(1) The Secretary of State may reimburse any expenses incurred by a public communications provider in complying with these Regulations.

    (2) Such reimbursement may be conditional on the expenses having been notified to the Secretary of State and agreed in advance.

    (3) The Secretary of State may require any public communications provider to comply with any audit that may be reasonably required to monitor any claim for reimbursement pursuant to this regulation.


Tony McNulty
Minister of State

Home Office
26th July 2007



EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)


These Regulations implement Directive 2006/24/EC ("the Directive") of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2006 on the retention of data generated or processed in connection with the provision of publicly available electronic communications services or of public communications networks and amending Directive 2002/58/EC.

The United Kingdom made a declaration pursuant to Article 15.3 of the Directive that it will postpone application of that Directive to the retention of communications data relating to Internet Access, Internet telephony and Internet e-mail. These Regulations therefore do not implement the Directive with respect to those forms of data.

The Regulations impose a requirement on the providers of public electronic communications services or networks ("providers"), as defined in regulation 2, to retain the categories of data specified in regulation 5. The Regulations apply to those providers as provided for in regulation 3. Regulation 4 makes provision regarding the obligation to retain the data specified in regulation 5.

Such data must be retained for a period of 12 months, in accordance with regulation 4(2). The data must be stored in accordance with the requirements in regulation 7.

Data security is provided for in regulation 6.

Regulation 8 provides that the Information Commissioner as the supervisory authority is responsible for monitoring the application of these Regulations with respect to the security of stored data.

There is a requirement on providers to provide statistics to the Secretary of State in regulation 9.

Regulation 10 provides that the Secretary of State may make arrangements for reimbursing any expenses incurred by providers in complying with the Regulations.


Notes:

[1] S.I. 2001/3495.back

[2] 1972 c.68.back

[3] 1998 c.29; section 1 was amended by the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (c.36), section 68(1), (2) and (3) and Schedule 8, Part III and by S.I. 2004/3089.back

[4] 2003 c.21.back

[5] S.I. 2003/2426.back

[6] The Information Commissioner is appointed under section 6(1) of the Data Protection Act 1998 (c.29), as substituted by Schedule 2 to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (c.36).back

[7] OJ No 105, 13.4.2006, p54.back



ISBN 978 0 11 078328 4


 © Crown copyright 2007

Prepared 1 August 2007


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