ANNEX B - QUESTIONNAIRE SENT OUT BY
INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY COMMITTEE
MITROKHIN ARCHIVE INQUIRY QUESTIONNAIRE
1. Policy and Procedure
a. What were the policies and procedures for receiving, handling,
distributing and informing ministers and departmental officials about
the information contained in The Mitrokhin Archive?
b. Are there rules and conventions covering these policies
and procedures, based on previous cases?
c. Have the rules and conventions, policies and procedures
changed over the last 25 years?
d. Does the DG Security Service take the decision to recommend
prosecution of spies; if so, is the authority based on legislation,
practice or delegation; is that decision visible to and endorsed by
the Home Secretary and/or Attorney General; does the DG inform the
Home Secretary and/or the Attorney General of a decision not to recommend
prosecution; and do the Chief of SIS and the Foreign Secretary operate
in a similar way?
e. How are decisions to reveal material such as The Mitrokhin
Archives to the public made; is there cross departmental agreement;
are ministers consulted either on the general contents or the detail;
and on what basis were the decisions made?
f. Does the Crown benefit from such public disclosures, through
financial payments, royalties or other sources?
g. Does any minister feel that they should have been consulted
and were not, and, if so, why?
h. Who is the ''eminent outsider'' that reviews and reports
the Security Service's spy cases; who decides which cases are examined
and to whom do they report; and what role did they have in The
Mitrokhin Archive case?
i. What changes have been proposed and/or implemented to any
of the above as a result of The Mitrokhin Archive?
2. Handling of The Mitrokhin Archive
a. Chronology: When was initial contact with Mitrokhin first
made? From initial contact with Mitrokhin to today, including ministers
and senior officials in agencies and departments, who was informed
of what when?
b. When were decisions made not to inform ministers and senior
officials, by whom and why? Were these decisions ever reviewed?
c. What other significant decisions were made by the agencies
without reference to ministers and/or departments, by whom and why?
d. Was a cross-departmental committee established to review
or discuss The Mitrokhin Archive, if so when, what was the
membership, what was its terms of reference and what did it discuss,
how often did it meet and to whom did it report? Did the committee
agree that the material should be published?
e. Was the JIC informed about The Mitrokhin Archive,
if so when and why?
f. Why was the Intelligence and Security Committee not informed
about The Mitrokhin Archive; who made the decision and when;
and was the decision reviewed?
g. When was material from The Mitrokhin Archive released
to Allies, why and under whose authority? Could foreign ministers
have been better briefed than UK ministers?
h. When were the decisions not to prosecute people taken, by
whom, why and were the decisions reviewed?
i. Why was 1992 the last opportunity to prosecute Norwood?
j. Did Mitrokhin place any conditions on his defection that
forced the publication of the material, if so who agreed to the conditions
and why?
3. Identified Agents
a. What information provided by Mitrokhin on UK spies: (i)
was previously unknown; (ii) confirmed suspicions; and (iii) already
known?
b. Has an assessment of the damage caused by Norwood and the
other UK spies been carried out?
c. Who took the decisions not to investigate and/or interview
and/or prosecute the agents and spies identified in The Mitrokhin
Archive.
d. Were any of the UK spies (i) interviewed or (ii) prosecuted
as a result of The Mitrokhin Archive?
e. How many spies and agents in other countries were identified
and/or interviewed and/or prosecuted as a result of The Mitrokhin
Archive?
f. How many of the Soviet agents identified in the Archive
were known to the agencies and what action has been taken in each
case?
g. Why was Symonds not taken seriously when he offered his
services in 1984/5?
4. Propriety
a. Who decided that the Archive should be offered to Andrew,
when, why and under what terms? Was that decision fully briefed to
and supported by ministers? Was the use of an official historian not
considered?
b. What are the financial arrangements for publication and
TV rights?
c. Who owns The Mitrokhin Archive and its copyright?
5. Other Points
a. Are there any other points in connection with The Mitrokhin
Archive that you wish to inform the Committee about?
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Prepared 12 June 2000
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