Councils have used controversial surveillance legislation to combat “low-level” offences, such as the misuse of blue badge parking permits, fly-tipping and benefit fraud, an Observer investigation has found. The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) 2000 gives certain public bodies the right – under limited circumstances – to conduct surveillance activities, including for crime prevention and national security purposes. At least 70 councils in England and Wales were authorised to use Ripa powers between January 2018 and March 2021 to gather evidence via cameras, street surveillance and informants or undercover officers. The law restricts local authorities in England and Wales to use the surveillance powers only to investigate crimes that carry a prison term of at least six months, unless they relate to the sale of alcohol or tobacco products to underage buyers. However, as revealed through a bulk of freedom of information (FoI) requests, a number of councils used the legislation to clamp down on what privacy campaigners described as “low-level offences’’ that did not result in custodial sentences. In 2018, Wandsworth council used the act to launch three undercover operations into people deceitfully using a lost or stolen blue badge permit to park in a controlled parking zone. The offenders were prosecuted and given community orders, fined or ordered to do unpaid work. A council spokesman said all three cases impacted disabled and vulnerable elderly people and involved serious offences of fraud, which carry a maximum sentence of 10 years. Sandwell council, meanwhile, deployed covert surveillance tactics to monitor “physical locations” and scour Facebook to try to identify the suspected sellers of counterfeit Nike training shoes worth £900. The suspect was cautioned and no criminal charges were brought. Elsewhere, Ripa powers were used by Anglesey county council to investigate the sale of “possibly dangerous cosmetics”, while other local authorities were authorised to check whether people were fraudulently claiming benefits. For example, in 2019, Blackpool council granted the Department for Work and Pensions access to its CCTV system to try to identify suspected “benefit fraud”. Dozens of other operations were related to fly-tipping, with a number of councils using cameras to catch individuals dumping waste at known hotspots. Critics of the spying legislation have said some local authorities have been too quick to use Ripa powers to tackle more minor crimes – involving relatively low sums of money – which could have been dealt with less intrusively. “Ripa was introduced in the context of counter-terrorism, so it is strange how the powers are sometimes being used for low-level offences,” said Eva Blum-Dumontet, senior research officer at Privacy International. “On the question of benefits, there is no justification for that sort of surveillance being required for people who are by default in vulnerable situations.” Rosalind Comyn, Liberty’s policy and campaigns manager, added: “We should all be able to trust our local authorities, and feel safe in the knowledge that they exist to serve and support us, not spy on us. But these findings reveal that some authorities are undermining this basic premise, with some councils actively disregarding our right to privacy.” There is no suggestion the councils unlawfully used the powers. A Home Office spokesperson said Ripa rules state that councils in England and Wales must not use directed surveillance for investigations that do not involve criminal offences or to investigate low-level offences. The use of directed surveillance powers by local authorities is inspected by the independent Investigatory Powers Commissioner to ensure it is lawful, the statement added.