Requests by police and other officials for information on people's phone calls and emails ran at an average of 1,381 a day last year, according to a report released today by the interception of communications commissioner, Sir Paul Kennedy.

A total of 504,073 surveillance requests to telephone and internet companies were made in 2008, the equivalent of one in 78 adults being targeted. The figure was slightly lower than in 2007, but higher than in 2006, when Kennedy issued his first report covering 253,557 requests registered in the 38 weeks after he took up his position in mid-April of that year. The 2008 figure shows a rise estimated at about 45%, if the 2006 figure is projected at a constant rate over a full year.

The report [PDF] shows that most of the requests came from police, but it also covers requests from the intelligence services and local authorities. These requests are separate from those on data interception, which involves tapping into the content of people's communications; rather, acqusition requests seek to find out who communicated with whom, and when and where this happened.

The Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, Chris Huhne, said the figures "beggared belief" and showed that Britain had sleepwalked into a surveillance state.

"Many of these operations carried out by the police and security services are necessary, but the sheer numbers are daunting," he said.

"It cannot be a justified response to the problems we face in this country that the state is spying on half a million people a year.

"We have sleepwalked into a surveillance state, but without adequate safeguards. Having the home secretary in charge of authorisation is like asking the fox to guard the hen house.

"The government forgets that George Orwell's [novel] 1984 was a warning and not a blueprint. We are still a long way from living under the Stasi but it beggars belief that it is necessary to spy on one in every 78 adults."

When it came to getting access to the content of communications, Sir Paul described interception as "an invaluable weapon" but said it was becoming increasingly technical and difficult due to the greater sophistication of terrorists and criminals.

The report reveals that two complaints of improper interception were upheld, only the second and third time such complaints have succeeded. It gives no details of the cases except to say that the intercepted data was destroyed and compensation was paid in one case but not the other.

Local authorities and government agencies won the right to ask for communications data – the "who", "when" and "where", as the report puts it – under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, but there was outrage over revelations last year after some councils confirmed in a Press Association survey that they had used the power to spy on people accused of allowing their dogs to foul pavements, or of leaving bins out too early for collection.

The government has launched a review. A Home Office spokesman said: "Of course it's vital that we strike the right balance between individual privacy and collective security and that is why the Home Office is clear these powers should only be used when they are proportionate."

• This article was amended on 12 August 2009. The original said the data-acquisition statistics referred to phone and email "tapping". It said surveillance requests were 60% higher than in 2006. This has been corrected. A reference to a 2008 Press Association survey has also been inserted to make clear where the information on some uses of surveillance tools originated.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/aug/10/email-phone-intercept-requ...