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MI6 did not clarify to the foreign secretary that a “high-risk agent” operating abroad had likely engaged in “serious crimes” until an independent regulator pointed this out last year.
The spy agency was asking the minister, either Dominic Raab or his predecessor, Jeremy Hunt, to renew the authorization of the agent’s activities despite the apparent criminality without being “expressly clear” as to what happened.
Six months earlier, MI6 had sent some “red lines” to the agent, probably an undercover informant. The agent was told that if they were violated, it “would result in the termination” of the informant’s relationship with the spy agency.
But when the Secretary of Foreign Relations was requested to renew the agent’s authorization, MI6 “did not expressly make it clear” that the “’red lines’ had probably been crossed”, until the Investigation Powers Commissioner (Ipco) warned ambiguity.
Many details of the account are hidden, highlighted in the Commissioner’s 2019 annual report, and it is unclear whether the minister ultimately granted approval. All the report said was that MI6 responded to concerns about his request for authorization by “updating” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Human rights activists said the disclosure and others in the report suggested the MI6 agent was in disarray. “While our intelligence agencies do vital work, this report raises the alarm on its account of deranged officers,” said Dan Dolan, deputy director of Reprieve.
The spy agency had been trying to authorize the agent’s activities under section 7 of the Intelligence Services Act, called the “license to kill.” It allows British agents operating abroad to violate any law without fear of prosecution in the UK if they have the written permission of the Foreign Secretary on duty.
Ipco also criticized MI6 for the way it handles whistleblowers in the UK, though it only handles a few agents at home. Although he was satisfied that MI6 handles “all officer cases adequately,” there were questions about handling the paperwork, including “inconsistent supervisory written evidence.”
Ministers are trying to introduce a related law, the Covert Sources of Human Intelligence (Chis) Bill, which would allow MI5 and police informants working in the UK to commit crimes to obtain intelligence on terrorists or other criminals. serious.
Reprieve said that the disclosures in Ipco’s annual report showed that the government “urgently needs to control violations of the law without control by agents.” But, Dolan said, ministers are “rushing through legislation that does not impose clear limits on the crimes they can commit.”
MI6 also told the regulator that it had been forced to suspend cooperation for a time with another country after joint counterterrorism operations had led to people being subjected to “unacceptable treatment” while detained there.
However, since then MI6 has restarted its work with that country, saying that more safeguards have been introduced.
The espionage agencies or the armed forces also asked the ministers to approve two cases that involved “a serious risk of torture” plus seven cases that involved “serious risk of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” and another 21 in which the due arrest or detention process. But the report does not record what was decided in these cases.
