PROSCRIPTION
The Home Secretary's role
MI5: The Home Secretary holds ministerial responsibility for MI5, although this oversight of MI5 is limited to the service's overall strategic direction and funding since the Director General of MI5 has operational independence in terms of day-to-day decision-making.[1] Nevertheless, the Home Secretary meets regularly with the Director General, who updates her on current priority operations, and she also authorises warrants for MI5 intrusive activity.[2]
The Home Secretary considers a large number of warrants—currently in the region of 4,000 applications a year, with approximately 170-190 new warrant applications per month, covering the full range of national security threats (including serious and organised crime, state threats, as well as terrorism).[3] The Home Secretary confirmed that the majority of warrant applications cover:
drugs, machine guns, just shocking, shocking things. Islamist [terrorism] is still I would say very high, worryingly high from my perspective, and Right-Wing is so blended and so mixed, it really is just in flux, because of the type of the cases that come up and the type of behaviours that people are showing.[4]
MI5 advised that, in 2020-21, there were fewer than *** ERWT new warrants compared to *** issued with regard to Islamist terrorism (that is, approximately 1:4). However, MI5 caveat that "warrant numbers in isolation are not by themselves an accurate barometer of the scope of our investigative/operational activities against a particular threat. One would also need to take account of other relevant factors such as the number of Subjects of Interest, the number of Leads being investigated, other capabilities we might deploy and the allocation of effort by spend. Also please note that some warrants cover more than one SOI, which will show up as just one authorisation in the above numbers."[5]
CTP: Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP) is a collaboration of UK police forces working with the UK Intelligence Community to help protect the public and UK national security by preventing, deterring and investigating terrorist activity.[6] The Home Secretary is accountable to Parliament for the national response to the counter-terrorism threat, and is legally accountable for national security and for the role that the police service plays within the delivery of any national response. She has reserved powers and legislative tools that- ↑ In this respect, MI5 is similar to the police. Unlike SIS and GCHQ, whose activities against overseas targets will more often carry political and diplomatic risk, the domestic operations of MI5 are usually less contentious—hence the lower level of 'political' approval.
- ↑ There are strict limitations on what MI5 is allowed to do when investigating an individual, and MI5 must abide by legal constraints when considering any action. All action MI5 takes must be considered necessary and proportionate in light of what it knows at the time. For example, MI5 can only use 'intrusive techniques' (such as intercepting telephone communications, surveillance in a private space, or interference with property) against an individual if there is sufficient justification on national security grounds. In addition, a warrant must be obtained that authorises precisely what action will be taken. Such warrants are issued by the Secretary of State.
- ↑ Written evidence - Home Office, 8 June 2021.
- ↑ Oral evidence - Home Secretary, 20 May 2021.
- ↑ Written evidence - MI5, 26 May 2021.
- ↑ www.counterterrorism.police.uk
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