When the Regulation of Investigatory Powers legislation was introduced, tinfoil hat wearers like me wrote a lot of words about how the rules would be abused. And lo! It turns out that councils are using the anti-terror legislation to find the owners of crapping dogs.

Earlier this month, it emerged that a family in Poole in Dorset had been covertly tracked for nearly three weeks to check if they lived in a school catchment area.

The investigation has also revealed that the law was used in at least seven cases to find out about people who let their dogs foul; a breach of planning law; an animal-welfare case; and an instance of littering