Investigatory Powers Tribunal Dismisses Claims in AFG & Others v Chief Constable of Dyfed Powys Police [2025] UKIPTrib 10

The Investigatory Powers Tribunal has handed down judgment in AFG & Others v Chief Constable of Dyfed Powys Police [2025] UKIPTrib 10., a case concerning the IPT’s jurisdiction, search warrants and police reliance on communications data. Georgina Wolfe appeared for the Chief Constable.

The case arose from two search warrants executed at the home of the first claimant, AFG, in 2016 and 2017 during an investigation into indecent images of children. The claimants were wholly innocent, having been wrongly linked to the offending due to a rare technical error: crossed wires in a local telecommunications cabinet had caused internet traffic to be misattributed to their address. The real offender was later identified and convicted.

The claimants brought proceedings under section 7 of the Human Rights Act 1998 and section 65(2) of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA), alleging breaches of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and unlawfulness in the acquisition of communications data.

The Tribunal, comprising Lord Boyd of Duncansby (Vice-President), Annabel Darlow KC and Judge Rupert Jones, accepted that the investigation had distressing consequences for the claimants but dismissed their claims. It held that the acquisition of communications data had been lawful, necessary and proportionate, and that Dyfed Powys Police could not reasonably have foreseen or detected the error caused by the telecommunications provider. The Tribunal found no error of public law and no breach of Article 8.

Further, in a decision that may be of interest to other police forces, it ruled that it lacked jurisdiction to consider complaints concerning the execution of search warrants, which did not require RIPA authorisation and therefore fell outside the Tribunal’s statutory remit.

The decision underscores the jurisdiction of the Investigatory Powers Tribunal and provides clear confirmation that police reliance on accurate communications data supplied by telecommunications providers is lawful, even where subsequent errors are found to have originated outside the police’s control.

Georgina Wolfe was instructed for the Chief Constable of Dyfed Powys.