IPCO inspections of informant policies
Daniel Morgan Panel · The Report of the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel · Issued 15 June 2021 · Addressed to: Investigatory Powers Commissioner's Office
Government responseHome Office: Noted (Jun 2023)
DeliveryNo statement from Investigatory Powers Commissioner's Office found
Recommendation, verbatim from the inquiry
●Inquiry recommendation, Volume 1
The Panel is concerned that the policies and procedures relating to the use of informants by law enforcement agencies still allow scope for corrupt practices, and it recommends that the Investigatory Powers Commissioner takes this into consideration during inspections.
Daniel Morgan Panel, The Report of the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel · 15 Jun 2021 Source PDF →
Published evidence summary
AI-generated evidence summary
The Panel recommended that informant inspections take corruption risks into consideration. In June 2023, the Home Office stated that the Investigatory Powers Commissioner's Office independently oversees these powers and conducts annual inspections to ensure compliance by law enforcement agencies (Home Office response, Jun 2023). The department explained that inspectors conduct interviews with handler and controller staff and scrutinise authorisation paperwork to ensure individual agencies mitigate risks (Home Office response, Jun 2023). It noted that handling risks associated with covert human intelligence sources is a key focus, though corrupt practices were not mentioned (Home Office response, Jun 2023).
Sources
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 1 Oct 2026.
Government response
●Home Office · Noted · 15 Jun 2023
2.1.8. The Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office (IPCO) independently oversees the use of these powers and conducts annual inspections to ensure compliance by law enforcement agencies. Experienced inspectors will also carry out further ad hoc inspections as required, should particular concerns arise, and overall findings are reported publicly in IPCO’s Annual Report. Handling the risks associated with the use of CHIS is a key focus for IPCO. Inspections include interviews with those in handler and controller roles and detailed scrutiny of the paperwork around the authorisation and management of CHIS, to ensure that risks are properly understood and mitigated by individual agencies.
Response document: Government response to the report of the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel
Delivery
No statement on delivery from Investigatory Powers Commissioner's Office has been found in the sources searched. This is separate from the response above.
How this page is built
The recommendation and the government responses are verbatim from primary documents. Delivery statements and other bodies' findings are shown in their own words, each with its source. The summary is written by this site and labelled as such. The Index does not paraphrase sources or characterise intent; it records what has been published.