The Register is reporting that bugging offices in the UK is not a crime.

Bugging offices in the UK is not a criminal offence, according to surveillance and legal experts speaking to OUT-LAW radio. While recording a phone conversation is a criminal offence, someone could place a recording device in an office legally, they said.

In an investigation into corporate surveillance techniques, the weekly technology law podcast OUT-LAW discovered that no offence is committed by placing a bug in a workplace to secretly record conversations.

Source: Bugging offices is not a crime (in UK)