1. The Government is grateful to the Intelligence
and Security Committee for its latest Annual Report. The Committee's Report
demonstrates its diligent work put in to oversight of the intelligence and
security Agencies and to the thoroughness with which it carries out its
responsibilities. In the last year, in addition to its own programme of work,
the Committee carried out, at the Government's request, an investigation
into the handling by the Agencies of Mr Mitrokhin's information.
2. The Government welcomes the Committee's recognition
of the high quality and commitment of the Agencies. They perform tasks vital
to the safety, security and prosperity of this country.
3. The Intelligence and Security Committee has exceptional
access to material of the highest classification, and this is reflected in
its Annual Report to the Prime Minister. It has been necessary, in consultation
with the Committee, to make excisions of secret matters from the published
version of the Committee's Report. The Intelligence Services Act 1994, through
which Parliament set up the Committee, provided for this level of access
but recognised that there is material, notably relating to the Agencies'
sources of information and methods of operation, which will be withheld from
the Committee. This has rarely been necessary. As this Annual Report and
its predecessors demonstrate it has been possible to provide the Committee
with the information which the Committee needs to reach fair judgements.
All three Agencies have worked hard to achieve this.
4. Moreover the Government ensures that there is the
fullest co-operation with the Committee by other Government departments to
enable it satisfactorily to carry out its oversight responsibilities for
the security and intelligence Agencies themselves. No unnecessary barriers
are put between the Committee and other Departments but the Government is
always mindful that parliamentary oversight of bodies who work with the Agencies
or use the information which they provide, notably the Ministry of Defence,
Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Home Office and law enforcement agencies,
is for the relevant Select Committee of the House of Commons. The distinctive
function of the Intelligence and Security Committee is the oversight of the
Agencies themselves. The success in public accountability which the Committee's
Mitrokhin inquiry represented would not have been possible without the basis
of confidence and trust developed by the direct relationship between the
three Agencies and the Committee.
Central Intelligence Machinery
5. In its Report the Committee describes the arrangements
by which the intelligence requirements laid on the Agencies are drawn up
and receive approval by Ministers. It also describes briefly the arrangements
through which the Agencies' budgets are agreed in the Government's public
expenditure planning process. The Committee suggests that the Ministerial
Committee on the Intelligence Services (CSI) should meet at least annually
under the Prime Minister's chairmanship and that the position of Chairman
of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) and Intelligence Co-ordinator should
be held by an official who is as senior as the heads of the security and
intelligence Agencies.
6. CSI will be meeting shortly and aims to meet annually
thereafter. The Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary, under whose authority
the three Agencies operate, are closely and actively involved with them,
not only in dealing with warrants for the Agencies and the authorisations
they require for their operational activity, but also, as part of their oversight
of the Agencies, in holding regular meetings with their heads. The Prime
Minister receives regular reports from the Agencies, as well as the Intelligence
and Security Committee's Annual Report which he discusses with the Committee.
Other members of CSI are engaged when necessary.
7. The JIC usually meets weekly. It is a senior official
committee, well placed to bring together consideration of intelligence
co-ordination and management issues. The JIC ensures that within Government
there is regular, effective collective discussion of intelligence and security
issues. The Chairman of the JIC, now Peter Ricketts, who is also the Intelligence
Co-ordinator, therefore has a pivotal role at the heart of the British
intelligence community. He was appointed by the Prime Minister and has direct
access to him. He works closely with Sir Richard Wilson, the Secretary of
the Cabinet and Principal Accounting Officer for the intelligence and security
Agencies' expenditure. He has the necessary experience, authority and influence
to co-ordinate and promote policy developments within the intelligence community.
8. Membership of the JIC is kept under review. The
Committee notes that the Home Office was added to the permanent membership
earlier this year. Arrangements are already made to ensure that the interests
of the law enforcement agencies and of departments not permanently represented
on the JIC are fully considered; they are invited to attend JIC meetings
as necessary.
9. The Government has decided that, from next year,
examination of the Security Service's plans and performance will be carried
out by the JIC. The Sub-Committee on Security Service Priorities and Performance
will be wound up. The change will enable the examination of the Security
Service's plans by senior officials to take place alongside that of GCHQ
and SIS.
Defence Intelligence Staff
10. The Government welcomes the Committee's recognition
of the importance of imagery. The Government accepts the need to keep in
step with technological developments in the field of imagery; Government
departments and Agencies will be working closely together, and with allies,
to ensure this and that appropriate levels of funding are devoted to this
area of activity.
11. The Committee's view is that the Joint Air
Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre (JARIC), an agency of the Ministry of
Defence, should be tasked and have its performance assessed by the JIC in
order to open the way for it to be funded in part from outside the Ministry
of Defence budget. The Government does not believe that this administrative
move is necessary because, as the Committee recognises, the JIC's requirements
already guide JARIC's work.
Employment Tribunals
12. The Government shares the Committee's wish that
the employment tribunal rules relating to national security should be given
effect without delay. The Committee is discussing the draft rules with the
Government and we intend to bring the new rules into force as soon as possible
after consideration of the Committee's comments and statutory consultation
with the Council on Tribunals.
Personnel Management in the Agencies
13. All three Agencies have been awarded Investors
in People accreditation, in recognition of the steps they have taken
to demonstrate their commitment to improving internal communication and staff
development. They have introduced training courses designed to improve the
quality of line management. The skills base of their staff has been increased.
Communication at and across all levels in the Agencies has been enhanced.
All three Agencies have conducted staff surveys which have shown positive
results. Whilst there have been some areas of difficulty, all three Agencies
have continued to be successful in attracting and retaining high calibre
staff.
Output measures
14. The Government shares the Committee's wish that
sensible but challenging output measures should be developed, and is working
on measures which capture well the value and impact of the Agencies work
and enable progress to be measured. The Government does not believe that
the output measures developed so far (contained within the Agencies' "Public
Service Agreements" and which cannot be published for reasons of confidentiality)
are unrealistic; it will continue to discuss its work in this area with the
Committee.
Commissioners and warrants
15. The Government explained earlier this year (Cm
4569) that it did not expect to be able to make the confidential annexes
to the Commissioners' reports available to the Intelligence and Security
Committee, but it keeps this under review. The Government notes that the
Committee does not wish to scrutinise warrants or gain unnecessary access
to details of operations or technical methods. The confidential annexes contain
explicit details of particular operations which it would not be appropriate
to make available to the Committee. Both Commissioners routinely record the
errors that have been reported each year and the corrective measures taken
in the open section of their report. Only in a few exceptional cases, where
it is not possible to explain the error without detailing sensitive operational
matters, would an error be recorded in the confidential annex. If the Committee
has a particular concern, the Government will seek to provide it with the
information necessary to satisfy its interest.
Security Policies and Procedures
16. The Government welcomes the continued interest
of the Committee in the personnel and physical security arrangements of the
Agencies. It shares the Committee's view of the importance of the Agencies'
having effective security policies and procedures in place and agrees with
many of the conclusions the Committee's Investigator has reached in his
examination of the Agencies' performance in this area. His recommendations
will be helpful in taking forward work which is already in hand to enhance
their security arrangements.
17. The Government agrees that shared best practice
and policies in personnel and physical security are of value to the Agencies
and other government departments. However, the Government continues to believe
that security arrangements must be implemented which best suit the particular
circumstances and requirements of the individual Agencies and other departments
and that responsibility for ensuring that effective arrangements are in place
should rest with the Heads of Agencies and departments.
Information Technology in the Agencies
18. The Government welcomes that Committee's favourable
assessment of the Agencies' information technology record based on its
Investigator's report. It shares the Committee's view on the need to protect
the UK Intelligence Messaging Network (UKIMN) against attack and for customers
to safeguard the Agencies' product. It has recognised that the Cabinet Office
needs to play an enhanced central role in development of the UKIMN. The Agencies
will continue to keep under review the salaries and conditions of information
technology staff.
19. The Agencies accept the thrust of the Committee's
recommendations on the use of laptop computers and have already taken appropriate
action. The Government agrees that Kilgetty Plus should be developed and
work is now in hand following the identification of appropriate funding.
The Agencies have a standing objective to review their security procedures
and communicate them clearly to staff.
Annual budgets
20. The Committee's published Report sets out the
expenditure plans for the Agencies for the period 2001-02 to 2003-04 which
were agreed earlier this year in the Government's Spending Review. These
plans will enable the Agencies to maintain and enhance their capabilities
in the face of the challenges they must meet. The budgets provide for a modest
real increase in their expenditure which, coupled with the Agencies' efforts
to improve their efficiency and effectiveness, will mean that their impact
on our interests should continue to grow.
21. The Government has carefully considered the arguments
for publishing the budgets of the individual Agencies. The Committee recognises
that it would not be in the public interest for these figures to be published
annually, because that would indicate funding trends and enable conclusions
to be drawn about particular capabilities of the Agencies. The Government
does not believe that publishing figures for one year only would be a tenable
position. The Intelligence and Security Committee has full access to the
budgets of the Agencies and is able to draw attention to any funding issue
that warrants consideration by the Government. The published version of the
Committee's Annual Report shows, even after redaction for security reasons,
that the Committee is well able to air any concerns it has about the levels
of Agency budgets or financial management issues generally.
GCHQ New Accommodation Programme
22. The expenditure plans for the Agencies also make
provision for the additional cost which GCHQ faces in the transitional period
until it moves to its new accommodation in Cheltenham. The programme is
challenging but the Government is confident that it can be achieved on time
and within the cost now identified. Sir Edmund Burton has played a valuable
role in the programme in recent months, and the Government agrees with the
Committee that he should continue to do so. GCHQ has appointed him a
non-executive Director and will have continuing access to his expertise.
GCHQ Resource Account
23. GCHQ has successfully completed its work on its
asset register with the Valuation Office and is confident that its systems
for asset tracking should now be fully adequate to support the needs of resource
accounting.
Unified Incident Reporting and Alert Scheme (UNIRAS)
24. The Government notes that the Committee has not
yet taken formal evidence on Information Warfare, but plans to do so. The
Government welcomes the Committee's interest and looks forward to learning
of its findings. The Government's own review of the "Love Bug" episode
demonstrated that the central UNIRAS arrangements worked well; indeed UNIRAS
was the first Computer Emergency Response Team anywhere in the world to issue
an official technical alert concerning the virus. The Government agrees that
when information relating to a serious virus attack becomes available, every
effort should be made to pass this on quickly. But UNIRAS depends upon the
wider community to provide it with material. The Government considers that
the mechanism for issuing alerts should not be the only focus; the real challenge
lies in educating the wider community about the defence mechanisms it should
install to guard against future virus attacks.
This challenge is being addressed by the National Infrastructure Security
Co-ordination Centre (NISCC), the responsibilities of which were set out
by the Home Secretary on
28 June 2000.
Serious crime
25. The Agencies have an important part to play in
the fight against serious crime. There has been a substantial expansion in
the last ten years in the Agencies' efforts. The Agencies have hitherto been
principally engaged in work against the illicit international trade in Class
A drugs. The Agencies have also begun work, at the request of the law enforcement
agencies, on excise evasion and illegal immigration, as the Intelligence
and Security Committee commends. Earlier this year the Government expanded
the Joint Intelligence Organisation in the Cabinet Office to produce a more
extensive strategic intelligence assessment capability for examining the
international trade in illegal drugs.
26. The Committee suggests that the Agencies could
do even more. The Government expects that the Agencies' outputs in relation
to serious crime will increase substantially by
2003-04 without detriment to their other work. The Government will keep the
balance of the Agencies' efforts under review, but it recognises that the
law enforcement agencies have their own arrangements for collecting operational
intelligence with which the security and intelligence Agencies work closely.
The intelligence and security Agencies complement the efforts of law enforcement
agencies; those efforts should not be duplicated and the Government is working
to ensure that any increased spending on intelligence about serious crime
is used to best effect across all the organisations concerned.
27. The Government endorses the Committee's view that
the Agencies can add value to the important work against organised illegal
immigration; (and they have been tasked to provide support to the enforcement
authorities). It is for the law enforcement agencies to agree in consultation
with the security and intelligence Agencies how best to make use of their
particular skills in this field. An inter-departmental group to tackle people
smuggling has been set up under the chairmanship of the Director General
of the National Crime Squad in which the security and intelligence Agencies
play a full part.
The Intelligence and Security Committee
28. In his letter of 9 August to the Prime Minister,
published with the Intelligence and Security Committee's Annual Report, the
Chairman, the Right Honourable Tom King CH MP, pointed out that the Report
might be his last. Some other members of the Committee have also indicated
that they will not stand for election to Parliament at the next General Election.
The Government therefore takes this opportunity to pay tribute to the work
of the Committee, and in particular the efforts of its Chairman in the six
years since its inception. The Committee's reports, and the Parliamentary
debates held on the basis of them, have made a substantial contribution to
ensuring that the Agencies are fully accountable for their work and that
it is conducted properly and efficiently. The Government looks forward to
the Committee's continued work. |