Scotland

an offence under s.11(1)(b) of RIPA for a person intentionally and without lawful authority to intercept, at any place in the United Kingdom, any communication in the course of its transmission by means of a public telecommunication system. S.1(2) RIPA provides for the same offence on a private telecommunication system. Either or both offences could apply in a 'hacking' case in which content was unlawfully intercepted through cyber-enabled means.
• There is clearly overlap between RIPA and the CMA 1990. The Crown Prosecution Service has said: “RIPA would usually be used if material was unlawfully intercepted in the course of its transmission; CMA would usually be used when material is acquired through unauthorised access to a computer”.
• Note that RIPA is due to be repealed by the Investigatory Powers Act 2016, though it is not clear when. The UK Government is currently consulting on various amends requested by the CJEU.