Home Secretary (): This statement updates
the House on the Investigatory Powers Commissioner's
investigation into how MI5 came to provide false evidence to the
Courts on whether or not it had confirmed the status of Agent X'
as a Covert Human Intelligence Source. This follows the then Home
Secretary's Written Ministerial Statement(opens in a new
tab) of 3 July 2025 and the Prime Minister's Written
Ministerial Statement(opens in a new
tab) of 16 September 2025.
Following the Direction provided by the Prime Minister in
September 2025, Sir John Goldring, the Deputy Investigatory
Powers Commissioner, has conducted a comprehensive investigation
into how MI5 came to fall short of its high standards, ultimately
misleading the High Court, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, the
Investigatory Powers Commissioner and associated Special
Advocates. This investigation has now concluded, and Sir John
Goldring's report is complete. Its findings have been submitted
to the Prime Minister and the Courts.
I would like to thank Sir Brian Leveson, Sir John Goldring and
the wider team at IPCO for the hard work that they have
undertaken over recent months. I am grateful for their
willingness to complete this investigation at the behest of the
Courts, which is outside the usual remit of IPCO's work.
Sir John's conclusions make stark reading. His report outlines a
series of failings both individually and organisationally within
MI5 that led to false evidence being included in its witness
statements. The High Court and the Investigatory Powers Tribunal
will now consider their next steps, and we will need to await the
outcome of those judicial proceedings.
Nevertheless, I am taking decisive action to ensure that MI5 is
held accountable for the failings identified in Sir John's report
and to strengthen the assurance mechanisms by which I hold the
Director General to account for the actions of the Security
Service. This includes a package of measures to enhance
accountability, increase independent challenge, review key
operational policies, and improve scrutiny of MI5's litigation
strategy and practice. Specifically, I will:
- Strengthen current structures where I hold the Director
General of MI5 to account. This will continue to sit alongside
extensive wider assurance and oversight across Government,
Parliament and the Judiciary;
- Increase independent senior-level challenge and external
leadership and accountability of MI5's internal reform and
improvement programmes;
- Enhance work across legal teams to better understand and
scrutinise MI5's approaches to litigation cases.
MI5 plays a critical role in keeping our country, and the public,
safe. I am deeply grateful for the commitment and dedication of
its staff. However, given the significance of its
responsibilities, it is imperative that the Service maintains the
highest standards of integrity, accountability and rigour,
particularly in its engagement with the courts. This case
demonstrates the damage to public, parliamentary and judicial
confidence in our security services when MI5 gets it wrong.
Over the last twelve months, MI5 has undertaken a comprehensive
programme of work to learn from and rectify the errors exposed by
Sir John's report, as well as previous independent reviews into
this case, as has been recognised in the IPCO report. This work
has made significant progress, but there is more to do, and MI5
must continue to learn and to hold itself fully to account. I
believe the new measures this Government is taking to strengthen
oversight will ensure it does.
A copy of the IPCO report will be placed in the Libraries of both
Houses and will be available on IPCO's website(opens in a new tab).
