Introduction
1. The Intelligence and Security Committee is established under the Intelligence Services Act 1994 to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the United Kingdom's three Intelligence and Security Agencies: SIS, GCHQ and the Security Service. Committee members are notified under the Official Secrets Act 1989 and operate within the 'ring of secrecy'. We report directly to you on our work, and through you to Parliament.
2. Since our appointment at the end of July last year, we have met formally on 30 occasions - once a week while Parliament is sitting, and more frequently on occasion - and taken evidence from 26 separate witnesses. A full list of those who have given evidence is at Appendix 1 to this Report; these included:
- the Foreign and Home Secretaries;
- the Heads of SIS, GCHQ and the Security Service, and a number of their staff;
- officials from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Home Office and the National Audit Office.
3. In addition to formal evidence-taking sessions, we had two briefings from the Chief of Defence Intelligence (CDI) and officers of the Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS). Since this Committee started work four years ago, we have made it our practice to be briefed on the activities of the DIS, which is a key element in the UK intelligence community and has an extremely close relationship with the Agencies, particularly as the principal customer of GCHQ.
4. We have again conducted a series of visits by 'sub-groups' of the main Committee to the three Agencies and their out-stations. This year, the sub-groups have concentrated on issues being pursued in formal Committee inquiries, including those of personnel management and personal files, meeting a broad of range of staff involved at all levels.
5. Part of our work also includes reviewing co-operation with this country's allies in the intelligence and security field. The Committee therefore conducted three working trips overseas - to the United States and Canada in March; Germany in May, and France and Italy in June/July - to discuss intelligence links and security co-operation with the United Kingdom, and comparative oversight arrangements. A full list of those we met is at Appendix 2 to this Report.
6. During the course of the year, we were again pleased to receive officials and Parliamentarians interested in the field of oversight from a number of other countries, including Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Romania, Sweden and the United States.
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