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However, Kennedy would not divulge the nature or purpose of any request, nor how many requests were actually granted.

"I do not intend to give a breakdown of these requests because I do not think that it would serve any useful purpose, but I can say that the intelligence agencies, police forces and other law enforcement agencies are the principal users of communications data," he said.

Kennedy also revealed that of the requests for interceptions that were actually granted, 1,182 "errors" were made, but refused to clarify exactly what he meant by "errors". He did, however, give assurances that each interception that was actually made was sanctioned by high-ranking senior officials.

"Any suggestion that a low ranking council employee may have unrestricted access to the telephone records of a member of the public is far removed from reality because a process has to be gone through first which requires the necessity and proportionality tests to be fully met before the necessary approval is given by a senior official," explained Kennedy.