I think that this boils down to there being two different types of collection Targeted and Bulk . Targeted collection is against a specified person or group of persons for a particular reason e . g . suspected of serious crime . This requires a targeted interception warrant which must be approved by the Secretary of State for the Department in charge of the organisation e . g . for GCHQSIS it is the Foreign Secretary , for MOD it is the Secretary of State for Defence . Where this targeted interception warrant is against a Member of Parliament the Secretary of State may not issue the warrant without the approval of thePrime Minister Section 272 . Where this gets messy is regarding bulk interception . By its definition this is a collecting of all information rather than there being any targeting within that collection . It is worth noting that of the organisations listed at the top , it is only SIS , SS and GCHQ that are able to implement bulk collection warrants . Bulk collection ' s main purpose must be limited to the interception of overseasrelated communications andor the obtaining of secondary data from such communications . Overseasrelated communications are defined at section 128 of the Act as those that are sent or received by individuals outside the British Islands . This condition prevents the issue of a bulk interception warrant with the primary purpose of obtaining communications between people in the British Islands . IOC COP 6 . 1 At the collection stage there is no way to filter out or even identify which are the communications of MPs . It is only at the examination stage that it is possible to potentially identify those communications which are from MPs . The safeguard to MPs and everyone else in the UK is that where the content of communications are selected for examination by any criteria referable to an individual known to be in the British Islands at that time , a targeted examination warrant must be obtained under Part 2 of the Act authorisingthe selection for examination of that content IOC COP 6 . 57 . So effectively as soon as the primary purpose is against someone in the UK a targeted interception warrant is required . ReferencesInterception of Communications Code of Practice Draft 1018 I n t e r c eptioncodeofpracticedraft . pdfHOL Bill 662017006617066 . pdf