MORE SCRUTINY OF MI5 AFTER BUGGING OF PRINCE CHARLES?
A senior minister is pressing for new measures to open up the security services, including the creation of a new ombudsman with powers to make secret files available to those who have been under surveillance.
William Waldgrave, Secretary of State responsible for open government, has proposed strengthening the complaints procedure against MI5 in a paper circulating in Whitehall.
The move comes as scrutiny of the security services is increasingly called into question following the publication of a transcript of a bugged conversation, allegedly between Prince charles and the Princess of Whales.
The cabinet had reacently failed to agree on the details of a new system of scrutiny for the security services, expected to involve a committee of Privy Councillors. Ministers are thought to have already rejected a plea from MPs that the select committee itself should undertake the scrutiny.
Current arrangements provide for a tribunal to review complaints against MI5, but none were upheld last year. With the changing world climate and declining fears about left-wing subversion, many MPs feal that subjects of surveillance in the 1950s and 1960s could be allowed to see their files without any risk to national security. A new ombudsman might be given powers to range back several decades.
However, any proposals to relax secrecy are likely to provoke opposition from the agencies themselves and in Parliament. One minister warnde last week that the scrutiny system must not allow the role of the security services to "degenerate into farce".
Those cautious about moves to open up the services argue that the Government has "to balance accountability against practicalities and worries about putting sources at risk".
Condensed from The Independent, 16.5.93