Rikfind wants more power for Parliamentary committee

Sir Malcolm Rifkind, a Conservative former Foreign Secretary, said it was “very unsatisfactory” that the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) was only able to request information rather than require agencies to provide it.

His criticism came as coroner Lady Justice Hallett raised concerns over a “number of inaccuracies” in the committee’s two reports into the 7/7 London bombings.

The ISC, made up of nine MPs and peers, is unique among committees because it reports directly to the Prime Minister rather than to Parliament. All members are vetted in order to see highly classified documents.

Sir Malcolm, who became ISC chair last year, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Where the problem is quite significant and needs reform is that under the Act that set up the committee (Intelligence Services Act 1994), we can request the agencies to provide information but we can’t require them to.

“Now to be fair, the agencies have never refused a request. But where we can never be certain, and it explains some of the problems that have arisen, is where the agencies have gone to enough trouble to find all the information in their own records to supply us with everything.

“Now that is a very unsatisfactory situation.”

He added: “I am in no doubt that what will happen, hopefully in the short term but certainly at some stage, will be to change the balance so that in future the committee will be able to require information to be provided.

“We’ll have our own researchers that will be able to examine the information available and to ensure that when we take evidence from MI6 and MI5, we have every single scrap of paper or information that’s been made available that we can use for the basis of the questions we put.”

Sir Malcolm said the oversight of the agencies by the ISC was “not satisfactory”.

He said: “The problem goes back to the fact that when the committee was created in 1994, it was given very modest powers because it was the very first time there had been any parliamentary oversight over MI5 and MI6 – a lot of nervousness in the agencies.

“For the system to work, you have to have a relationship of trust between the ISC and the people from MI6 and MI5 who are giving evidence.”

He said the committee had recently carried out a “root-and-branch examination of our powers” and would soon be presenting “very radical recommendations” to the Government.

Sir Malcolm also suggested the Intelligence and Security Committee should increasingly report to Parliament as well as to the Prime Minister so the public could have “the degree of confidence they’re entitled to”.