Theresa May overruled her spy watchdog’s advice to hold a public consultation on torture protocol and instead ordered a “light-touch” review, a leaked government document has revealed.
The document, inadvertently posted to the Labour Party by an official working for Boris Johnson, adds that ministers have decided to reject a separate proposal to hold a public consultation into the treatment of detainees contained in a report to be published today.
The extraordinary breach came after Emily Thornberry, shadow foreign secretary, and Baroness Chakrabarti, shadow attorney-general, wrote to Mr Johnson last month stating their “extreme concern” that the government was not holding a public consultation on possible changes to the “consolidated guidance”, which sets out the principles governing the detention and interviewing of detainees overseas.
The foreign secretary confirmed that a review was taking place within government but declined to consult human rights organisations and other interested groups.
The envelope containing Mr Johnson’s response also included a briefing note prepared for the foreign secretary on the subject. The note told Mr Johnson that Sir Mark Waller, who at the time scrutinised the powers of UK spies as intelligence services commissioner, had found in a 2016 report that the consolidated guidance was “fit for purpose but that its operation had revealed room for improvement”. He suggested a review and “recommended inviting contributions to the review from civil society organisations to improve transparency and accountability”.
The note said: “The prime minister agreed the Cabinet Office should lead a ‘light-touch’ review . . . and it was decided that public consultation was unnecessary given Sir Mark had concluded the guidance was fit for purpose.”
The document also revealed that the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) report into the treatment of detainees that is being released today “will recommend consulting civil society”. This, too, will be rejected though. “Public consultation would be widely welcomed by the ISC and civil liberties groups, but would further delay publication and is likely to generate recommendations that we would not be able to implement without damaging national security,” the note said.
The letter from Mr Johnson suggested that the government would “wait until the ISC’s report is published before deciding on next steps”.
The Times revealed this week that the US government had demanded last-minute changes to the ISC report, which will call for far greater ministerial oversight of the security services’ actions to ensure political accountability for their decisions.
Dan Dolan, head of policy at Reprieve, one of the organisations that Sir Mark had recommended consulting, told The Times: “Light-touch changes will not fix the government’s broken torture policy. We know from official statistics that guidance is routinely ignored, risking continued UK involvement in torture and rendition, and yet the prime minister has rejected the committee’s call for reform before the ink was even dry on its report.”
Lady Chakrabarti called for a judge-led inquiry into the UK’s involvement in rendition, saying: “Only a full-blown judicial investigation will protect the robustness and reputation of our vital security agencies.”
Article originally appeared on The Times
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