A-Infos (en) MI5 May Have to Open its Files

[Tom Burghardt <tburghardt@igc.apc.org>]

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                 MI5 MAY HAVE TO OPEN ITS FILES
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     THE SUNDAY TIMES: NEWS
     SUNDAY, 1 FEBRUARY 1998
     http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news
     By Nicholas Rufford, Home Affairs Editor
 
     THE government's data watchdog is demanding that MI5, MI6
and GCHQ register all their secret files and allow the public
access to any information held on them.
 
     Elizabeth France, the data protection registrar, has warned
the three organisations that they are at risk of criminal
prosecution if they fail to comply. The challenge is the most
serious yet to the traditional secrecy of Britain's intelligence
services.
 
     Under data protection laws, any individual is entitled to
see copies of information held about them on computer.
Organisations can withhold data on grounds of national security,
but that applies to only a small proportion of the hundreds of
thousands of files held by the intelligence services, many of
which were compiled during the cold war.
 
     The three agencies may also be forced to disclose to their
9,000 staff the contents of personnel files.
 
     The move, which was triggered by the agencies' decision to
extend their roles into fighting serious crime, has provoked a
furious row within Whitehall. "This is going to blow the lid off
the intelligence services," said a senior security source.
 
     GCHQ said it was immune from the requirement to release
data, but that claim was immediately rejected by the office of
the registrar, which said it had taken legal advice. Jack Straw,
the home secretary, who is both in charge of MI5 and overseeing
the data protection laws, has been unable to reach a decision. If
he tries to force new rules on the intelligence services, he
faces tough resistance from MI5, MI6 and GCHQ.
 
     If Straw fails to act, his aim of greater openness will be
questioned, and he will be seen as applying double standards by
the police and the National Criminal Intelligence Service, which
adhere strictly to data protection rules.
 
     France said important elements of the agencies' work should
be legally covered by her office. "It is perfectly proper to have
exemptions for national security, but I cannot accept that the
aspects of their work that are the same as the aspects covered by
the police should not be caught by the provisions of the data
protection act." France is expected to explain her judgment at a
conference tomorrow of the Campaign for Freedom of Information
(CFI).
 
     The proposed new data protection act, due to have its second
reading in the Lords tomorrow, will extend France's powers still
further and allow ministers to be challenged if they issue
immunity certificates on national security grounds.
 
     Maurice Frankel, director of CFI, welcomed the move. "The
intelligence services have been too secretive for too long," he
said.
 
     Copyright 1998 The Times Newspapers Limited.
 
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