MI5 slammed after ‘serious failings’ led to courts receiving false evidence
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced her intention to take “immediate action” to hold MI5 to account after a report revealed “serious failings” by its officers led to false evidence being presented to the courts.
Mahmood made the oath after Investigative Powers Commissioner Sir Brian Leveson published a report on Thursday identifying “systemic failures” in the security service’s behavior in the Agent X case.
The report comes after MI5 apologized earlier this year and settled a legal case brought by a woman known as Beth over her treatment by her allegedly abusive ex-partner.
The security service agreed to pay an undisclosed compensation fee after the woman sued the Investigative Powers Tribunal (IPT) over a man known as Agent X, an accused neo-Nazi who attacked her with a machete.
The IPT, a specialist tribunal investigating allegations against UK intelligence services, said in July last year that MI5’s provision of false evidence “gives real cause for concern” and “must never happen again”.
Ms Mahmood said: “The findings of this report are very clear. It details serious failings by individual MI5 officers, resulting in false evidence being presented to the courts and MI5 being criticized as an organisation.”
“I am taking urgent action to hold MI5 accountable for these failings, including strengthening my oversight and assurance of their work.”
He said the security service “plays a critical role in keeping our country safe and we owe its staff a debt of gratitude” and that it has “made significant progress in learning from these failures over the past year” but that “there is more to do to ensure the highest standards of integrity and accountability are maintained”.
Director-General Sir Ken McCallum said MI5 “recognises without hesitation the seriousness of our failings” and repeated its previous apology for the case “for our slowness in understanding what happened”.
“I cannot comment on specific details today due to legal proceedings still ongoing. But I can say that MI5 has done a lot over the last 18 months to improve our policies and processes to ensure we never find ourselves in this situation again,” he added.
He said MI5 staff were working “day and night to keep this country safe” and that he was “very right” but that in this case “we have fallen well short of what the public expects and deserves”.
“The best response MI5 can give is to ensure that we consistently achieve the highest professional standards in carrying out our vital duty,” he said.
Sir Brian said the findings of the inquiry were “extremely serious”, adding: “What makes this case particularly grave is the misdirection of IPCO (Office of the Investigative Powers Commissioner) and the courts. “Failures of candor undermine the entire basis of oversight and accountability.
“I welcome the director-general of MI5 establishing a major program of change to address the shortcomings identified in this report. The program will be subject to ongoing IPCO review and I will not hesitate to report further if progress falls short of what is required.”
A separate trial regarding the case is ongoing in the High Criminal Court.
