Introduction
1. The phone-hacking scandal cast a new light
on the sometimes murky world of private investigators. Individuals
such as Glenn Mulcaire and Steve Whittamore might conform to a
certain stereotype of the private investigator, but investigation
in its broader sense is a multi-million pound industry which performs
many socially-valuable functions. Private investigators are employed
by law-firms, major corporations, individuals, local authorities
and even government departments to carry out a wide range of work
such as corporate due diligence, accident investigation, insurance
claims inquiries and tracing debtors. The committee was told that,
broadly speaking, their work can be classified into four types:
business intelligence; litigation support; problem-solving; and
domestic and personal investigations.[1]
2. However, the rogue element of the industry
not only causes significant harm in its own right, it drags down
the reputation of the industry as a whole, damaging by association
the reputations of many decent, honest, law-abiding and highly-skilled
investigators.
3. Following our inquiry on phone-hacking last
year, the Prime Minister announced a two-part examination of the
role of the press and police in the phone-hacking scandal.[2]
Phone-hacking brought to light the illegal activities of private
investigators on behalf of the tabloid media. However, Lord Justice
Leveson's work is focused only on a small portion of the work
of private investigators.
4. Our intention is not to replicate the work
of the Leveson Inquiry, but to explore how the work of private
investigators impacts more widely on the world of law-enforcement,
on the justice system and on the lives of ordinary people, not
just those with a high media profile. In Part 1, we set out the
role of the private investigator; in Part 2, we turn to the risks
of an unregulated sector; and in Part 3, we recommend a number
of remedies, including statutory regulation.
1 Some private investigators contrasted their work
in legitimate data gathering with "information brokers",
who they claimed were simply traders in information-both legitimate
and illicit-without the investigative function. Back
2
Home Affairs Committee, Unauthorised tapping into or hacking
of mobile communications, Thirteenth Report of Session 2010-12,
20 July 2011, HC 907 Back
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