Do regulatory agencies have phone tapping powers? For now, no
– but there have been calls for the Government to give
certain regulatory agencies, such as the Competition and Consumer
Protection Commission (CCPC), powers to mount surveillance and
intercept electronic communications to assist in the investigation
of white collar crime.
The current position
There are strong protections for privacy rights in the
Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights
(ECHR). The right to privacy was recognised by the
Supreme Court in a 1987 case involving the tapping of
journalists' phones, where the Supreme Court commented that
unlawful phone tapping is an attack on human dignity.
