Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC)
Parliamentary oversight of SIS, GCHQ and the Security Service
is provided by the Intelligence and Security Committee. Its cross-party
membership of nine Parliamentarians, drawn from both Houses, is appointed
by the Prime Minister after consultation with other party leaders.
It was established by the Intelligence
Services Act 1994 [External website]
The Committee's statutory remit is to examine the expenditure,
administration and policy of the three Agencies. In addition, although the
Committee does not have formal oversight of the Defence
Intelligence Staff (which is part of the Ministry of Defence), the
Chief of Defence Intelligence has, with the Government's agreement,
given evidence and assisted the Committee with its work. On a similar
basis, the ISC also examines the work of the
Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) and the Assessments Staff and takes
evidence from the Chairman of the JIC and the Chief of the Assessments
Staff in pursuit of its inquiries.
The ISC operates within the "ring of secrecy", so that members
are bound to observe confidentiality whilst having access to the range of
Agency activities and to highly classified information. In terms of the
Agencies' budgets, the Committee sees the details of the Single Intelligence
Account and is supported by the National Audit Office (NAO) in
this work.
The ISC sets its own work programme, with Ministers, Agency heads and
others giving evidence as necessary. The Committee reports annually to the
Prime Minister on its work. These annual reports, after any deletions of
sensitive material, are then laid before Parliament, together with the
Government's response, and debated. The Committee also produces ad hoc
reports, such as its "
Report into the London Terrorist Attacks on 7 July 2005",
[External PDF 661KB, 52 pages] which was published on 11 May
2006.
The current Chairman of the ISC is the Right Honourable Margaret Beckett
MP. The ISC is supported by
a Clerk and a small secretariat based in the Cabinet Office.
The ISC's reports and the Government's responses, together with a
booklet produced by the ISC on intelligence oversight, can be accessed at
www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/intelligence
[External website].
[return to top]
