Military Intelligence & NI
01 September 1992
MI5, the Security Service which deals with espionage and subversion within the UK and the colonies, has been given the lead responsibility for intelligence work against the IRA in Britain.
The Home Secretary, Kenneth Clarke, announced the change on 8 May following two reviews of the role of intelligence services undertaken by the former head of the Secret Service (MI6), Sir Christopher Curwen, in 1990 and 1991. Curwen argued for a strictly limited and subordinate role for MI5 but the Home Secretary rejected this advice. MI5 already has primary responsibility for intelligence work in relation to loyalist and international terrorism, as well as IRA activity in Europe and elsewhere. The move had been widely anticipated following a number of leaks which may have come from both the police and MI5. In April, the Irish Times was sent documents containing confidential minutes of a quarterly meeting between the Metropolitan police's policy committee and senior area officers held in December 1991. The minutes apparently disclosed that the police had little intelligence on the IRA's firebombing campaign in the north of England and that the IRA threat remained high. Since 1988 the IRA has mounted over 40 attacks in Britain, involving an estimated 17 deaths.
Clarke's announcement brings to an end the primacy of the Special Branch after 109 years - the Branch was originally founded to combat Irish Fenian bombings in London. In 1990, the police sought to strengthen their anti-terrorist role through the establishment of an advisory group of the Association of Chief Police Officers. The ACPO group is headed by the assistant commissioner for specialist operations at the Metropolitan police, William Taylor. In addition, the Commander of the Metropolitan police anti-terrorist branch was appointed as national co-ordinator of police counter-terrorist investigations. Neither this reorganisation, nor Curwen's reviews, nor opposition within the police itself, were enough to dissuade the Home Secretary from the promotion of MI5. As he made clear in the House of Commons, the ending of the Cold War means, "we simply have the opportunity to switch more resource within the security services into this key area of Irish republican terrorism in this country ... As a result of political changes, there is greater opportunity for the Security Service to put more of its resources into that activity". According to one report, the director general of MI5, Stella Rimington, is hoping to expand the role of the Security Service still further by contributing to intelligence-gathering in relation to drugs, major fraud and other fields, such as the animal liberation movement.
Accountability
The decision on MI5 has given renewed impetus to the debate over the accountability of intelligence agencies. Under the Security Service Act 1989, MI5 is "amazingly accountable" according to Kenneth Clarke. The Act established a Security Service Commissioner, who produces an annual report, and a tribunal whose decisions cannot be challenged by any court. (see Statewatch May/June 1991) The new provisions have not satisfied some MPs who continue to press for proper parliamentary accountability which goes beyond Stella Rimington reporting to Kenneth Clarke. The Labour Party would like to see the establishment of an intelligence select committee comprising senior Privy Councillors. Alternatively, it has been suggested that accounting officers for each of the security services should give evidence on financial matters to the Public Accounts Committee in closed session. Early in May, the Prime Minister stated that the veil of secrecy surrounding MI6 would be lifted and the Secret Service put on a statutory basis.
In June, the Cabinet committee on the intelligence services, whose existence was only publicly recognised in May, decided to subject MI5, MI6 and GCHQ to a limited form of parliamentary scrutiny, the details of which are likely to emerge from the Bill p