Concerns have been raised by opposition councillors over Solihull Council’s absence of covert surveillance activity to tackle crime in the area. During the council’s recent governance committee meeting, it emerged that the authority has not utilized any covert surveillance methods in the past twelve months.
Under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA), while originally intended for intelligence services such as MI5, MI6, and GCHQ, local councils are also permitted to employ such powers to prevent and detect crimes punishable by six months or more in prison. Other councils across the country have used undercover video surveillance, for example, to catch illegal sales of age-restricted goods or monitor notorious fly-tipping sites.
Despite these capabilities, Solihull Council reported no applications to use RIPA powers in the last year. Councillor Samantha Gethen questioned this absence, pointing to ongoing issues like phoenix shops—businesses that close and reopen under different names to evade regulations—and persistent fly-tipping. She asked, “Why have there been no surveillance operations at all? Why aren’t we leveraging the powers available to us to tackle these problems?”
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Andrew Kinsey, the council’s legal services manager, replied that he could not speak on behalf of all departments but promised to request a detailed explanation from the relevant teams. Councillor Max McLoughlin echoed the call for clarity, highlighting that it remains unclear whether the lack of surveillance is due to no qualifying crimes, limited resources, or procedural changes. He noted previous concerns about the decline in RIPA applications and recalled that although over 3,000 fly-tipping incidents had been reported in the past year, only seven fixed penalty notices were issued.
“This raises the worrying possibility that enforcement capacity is lacking,” McLoughlin warned. “RIPA has historically been an important tool in combating serious and organised crime, and it appears to be underutilized now.”
The council confirmed that once departmental responses are received, the information will be provided to the governance committee for further scrutiny. This discussion took place during the meeting on June 18 at Solihull’s Civic Suite, shedding light on the need for better enforcement strategies to address the borough’s crime challenges.