Downing Street Says » Intercept

Asked for more details on the civil service review on Intercept evidence, such as who would be on the committee, the PMS said he did not have anything to add to what the Prime Minister had said in the House today. It would be an implementation team and it would be cross-departmental. It would include the main departments and agencies involved and it would aim to conclude its work swiftly, as the Prime Minister had said. Asked if the Government would be naming a Chair, the PMS said that the Government would not be naming a Chair today.

Asked if the recommendation had meant to say that the security services could veto whether their evidence was used, the PMS agreed and said it was about the manner in which the evidence was made available and the conditions by which evidence was made available.

Put that you would not charge someone if the case depended on wire-tapping evidence that the security services were not happy with being used in court, the PMS said that the condition was clear in that it would give interception agencies the ability to retain control over whether their material was used in prosecutions.

Asked if the term interception agencies included the police, the PMS said that he would have to check on that matter.

Put that the Prime Minister seemed vague on the timetable for this and was the Prime Minister using this statement to get 42 days through the House, the PMS said that there was no connection between the two. In regards to the timetable, the PMS said that we wanted to conclude this work swiftly, but it was very complex and technical. People needed to recognise that it was a very serious legal matter and the Government had a responsibility to get it right.

Put that the report did not clear up any of the issues surrounding how the security services could overcome the obstacles that stood in the way of them using wire-tapping evidence, the PMS said what had changed was that we had a very thorough report form a very expert committee. We had a cross-party consensus on the way forward, but of course there were technical and legal issues that remained to be resolved. These had been identified and we had a consensus about what these issues were. The report was also clear in saying that in the opinion of the review committee, these should be able to be overcome and we now needed to take the work forward in the implementation committee to find a way to make this possible.

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» Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Intercept

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