MI5 Diretor's speech
01 January 1991
MI5 Diretor's speech
artdoc March=1995
Extracts from Stella Rimington's lecture on `Intelligence,
Security and the Law'
In her lecture on 3 November Stella Rimington, the Director
General of the Security Service (MI5) first drew parallels with
MI5's counterparts in Europe `and further afield' who operate
`very successfully from within the framework of the police
service'. She went on to say:
Over the years, a unique and close relationship has therefore
developed between the Security Service and Police Special
Branches. More recently this relationship has expanded
significantly and now includes other parts of the Police Service.
On the respective roles of the police and MI5:
Some people have suggested that the sole priorities for the
police should be to gather information, make arrests, produce
evidence in court, and obtain convictions. They also see the
Security Service as being concerned only with obtaining secret
intelligence, built up covertly over the longer term, in order
to provide analysis of the target.
It is wrong - and misleading - to attempt to manufacture too
sharp a distinction between information and intelligence. Along
with its aim of countering threats to national security, the
Security Service is fully committed to supporting the Police in
detecting and preventing crime, and preserving law and order.
And, as part of our work to counter such threats, we will, where
appropriate, use our intelligence resources to collect evidence
in support of a prosecution.
Then in a section headed: The Security Service and the Criminal
Justice Process, she elaborates on MI5's role which through its
counter terrorist work has `become increasingly engaged in
proceedings before the courts'. The problem for MI5 was how to
prevent the exposure in court of its methods: the answer is the
doctrine of Public Interest Immunity (pii):
This allows Pii to be claimed for sensitive Security Service
material relating to national security. This is to protect
vulnerable sources and techniques used by the Service, which may
include agents, surveillance, or eavesdropping operations and
clandestine searches carried out under Home Office warrant
authorised under the Security Service Act.
In each case, the decision on disclosure rests with the judge.
The aim is to ensure that the defence may obtain as much material
information as possible within the constraints of the
requirements of national security.
In recent years the terrorist threat has:
focused attention on the potential for integrating secret
intelligence into the judicial process. The question now arises
about the role the Security Services should play in the
prosecution of those responsible for such crimes.
With `changing threats and new circumstances' MI5 and the Police:
regularly demonstrate that they complement one another in their
approach to common problems. We have, together, achieved
considerable success.
The James Smart Lecture, 3.11.94.
Statewatch, Vol 4 no 6, November-December 1994