spy agencies' surveillance to be investigated by parliamentary body

Extent of spy agencies' surveillance to be investigated by parliamentary body

Intelligence inquiry begun after Edward Snowden leaks and Guardian revelations on GCHQ and NSA personal data sharing

Nick Hopkins, Patrick Wintour, Rowena Mason and Matthew Taylor

The extent and scale of mass surveillance undertaken by Britain's spy agencies is to be scrutinised in a major inquiry to be formally launched on Thursday.

Parliament's intelligence and security committee (ISC), the body tasked with overseeing the work of GCHQ, MI5 and MI6, will say the investigation is a response to concern raised by the leaks from the whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the committee chair, said "an informed and proper debate was needed". One Whitehall source described the investigation as "a public inquiry in all but name".

The announcement comes four months after the Guardian, and leading media groups in other countries, including the New York Times and the Washington Post, began disclosing details of secret surveillance programmes run by Britain's eavesdropping centre, GCHQ, and its US counterpart, the National Security Agency.

The Guardian has been urging a debate about programmes such as GCHQ'sTempora and the NSA's Prism, which allow the agencies to harvest vast amounts of personal data from millions of people – intelligence that is routinely shared between the two countries.

In a change from its usual protocol, the normally secretive committee also announced that part of its inquiry would be held in public.

It will also take written evidence from interested groups and the public, as well as assessing secret material supplied by the intelligence agencies. The Guardian will also consider submitting evidence.

Conceding that public concerns had to be addressed, Rifkind, a former foreign secretary, added: "There is a balance to be found between our individual right to privacy and our collective right to security."

The ISC, which has been criticised for being too close to the agencies, has been under pressure to provide more robust scrutiny of the intelligence community. In recent weeks Lord King, a former chair of the committee, Sir David Omand, a former director of GCHQ, and Stella Rimington, a former head of MI5, have all raised concerns about the laws governing the secret services and the amount of scrutiny they are subjected too.

Formally, the committee has decided to broaden an existing inquiry into whether the intelligence laws are "fit for purpose".

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Nick Pickles, director of Big Brother Watch, said: "This is a welcome step forward given the widespread concern that Britain's laws are not fit for purpose. However, such a debate cannot be allowed to take place behind closed doors and without pressing questions being asked about the legal justification for what we know to be happening presently at GCHQ and elsewhere."

Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said: "Some will say better late than never, others fear a tactical whitewash to calm public concern. It's certainly significant that the committee feels compelled to dig a little deeper but that's no substitute for much broader public and political debate."

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/oct/17/uk-gchq-nsa-surveillance-inquiry-snowden