Accountability Of The Security Services

EDM number 366 in 1997-98, proposed by George Galloway on 28/10/1997.

That this House expresses its dismay at the revelations in the Mail on Sunday by former MI5 officer David Shayler about the wholesale bugging and surveillance routinely carried out by the security services against political activists such as the Right honourable Member for Blackburn, the honourable Member for Hartlepool and journalists such as Victoria Brittain, the respected deputy foreign editor of the Guardian, even though the individuals in question were behaving entirely lawfully; begs that the Intelligence and Security Committee gives careful consideration to the Shayler revelations; seeks assurances from the Head of MI5 that, now that the Cold War has ended, there will be no further harassment of those who pursue legal, peaceful political activities in this country, that files on such people will now be closed and that no more such files be opened; and asks that the committee begins discussions with the Home Secretary and the Head of MI5 with a view to the transfer to the Public Record Office in Kew of the hundreds of thousands of now redundant files, where they may be consulted by those on whom they were kept and where, in due historical course, they may be opened for public inspection.

This motion has been signed by a total of 23 MPs, 3 of these signatures have been withdrawn.