Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-8gtf8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-26T05:23:57.909Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

20 - Obtaining Digital Evidence under UK Law

from Part III - Collecting Digital Evidence and the Role of Service Providers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2025

By
Elif Mendos Kuşkonmaz  and
Ian Walden
Edited by
Vanessa Franssen  and
Stanisław Tosza
Vanessa Franssen
Affiliation:
Université de Liège, Belgium
Stanisław Tosza
Affiliation:
Université du Luxembourg
Get access

Summary

Chapter 20 focuses on the UK legal landscape around the investigatory powers of UK law enforcement authorities (LEAs) and the duties of service providers to cooperate with them. The primary legislative framework from which LEAs derive their powers to obtain digital evidence is the Investigatory Powers Act 2016. The chapter examines the different categories of data that may be requested from communication services providers and the legal procedures governing such lawful access. It also looks at other legal sources available to LEAs, to provide a comprehensive framework for cooperation between service providers and LEAs in obtaining digital evidence. Last, the chapter explores the cooperation of UK LEAs with non-UK-based service providers, as well as that of UK-based service providers with foreign LEAs.

Keywords

United Kingdomdigital evidencelaw enforcementInvestigatory Powers Act 2016service providerslawful interceptcommunications dataencryption
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Digital Evidence in Criminal Investigations , pp. 539 - 568
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×