Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Intelligence Services Act 1994

1994; Wiley; Volume: 57; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1468-2230.1994.tb01983.x

1468-2230

John Wadham,

Criminal Law and Evidence

The Intelligence Services Act' is largely modelled on the Security Service Act of 1989 (the 1989 Act) which dealt with the Security Service (IVII~).~That Act substantially followed the structure of the Interception of Communications Act 1985 (the 1985 Act).The new Act (the 1994 Act) deals with both the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) also known as MI6 and the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and, most importantly, it establishes for the first time a system of parliamentary accountability for all three service^.^In this article, I propose to examine the new Act from the perspective of the rights of those likely to be under surveillance by the secret services.I start from the view that, whilst it must be recognised that the effectiveness of the country's security and intelligence services necessarily depends on a degree of secrecy which would be unacceptable in other institutions, this very latitude puts them in a uniquely powerful position to abuse their powers and, on behalf of their political masters, to make use of them in ways not acceptable in a democratic society.It is crucial, therefore, that the need for complete secrecy is carefully considered and not accepted uncritically.Society is entitled to be assured that basic principles of political, financial and legal accountability be abrogated only where it is absolutely necessary and that, even where full accountability is not possisble, the most democratic options available will be pursued. The History of the ActsThe secret services date from 1909, a time of great concern about the activities of foreign espionage from germ an^.^A Secret Service Bureau was established and, in 1910, was divided into two, one dealing with internal security and the other with external security.These concerns also led to the Official Secrets Act 191 1 which passed through all stages in the House of Commons in one day.