Letter to Rt Hon. Shaun Woodward MP, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, from the Chairman of the Committee

GIBSON REVIEW OF INTERCEPT INTELLIGENCE

I note from your written statement of yesterday on Sir Peter Gibson's review of intercept intelligence that while a summary of Sir Peter's Report has been placed in the Library of the House of Commons, it is your intention to make the full, classified report available to the members of the Intelligence and Security Committee for their scrutiny.

Following discussion of this matter in the Northern Ireland Committee yesterday, may I ask that I, too, on behalf of the Committee, be granted access to Sir Peter's full, classified report?

21 January 2009

Letter to the Chairman of the Committee from Rt Hon. Shaun Woodward MP, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland

REVIEW BY SIR PETER GIBSON

Thank you for your letter of 21 January in which you request, on behalf of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, access to Sir Peter Gibson's classified Report. I was grateful for the opportunity to briefly discuss this issue with you on 28 January.

As I explained, it is the role of the Intelligence and Security Committee to scrutinise intelligence material on behalf of the House and I must be careful not to undermine or cut-across the remit members of that Committee have. In view of this the Government cannot agree to your request.

However, I do recognise the interest that you and your Committee have taken in the Omagh atrocity over a long number of years and therefore I have arranged for you, as Chairman, to receive a briefing on the Report from Robert Hannigan, the Prime Minister's Special Advisor, accompanied by one of my senior officials and a representative from GCHQ.

I hope this will provide you and the Committee with further reassurance.

27 January 2009

Letter to Rt Hon. Gordon Brown MP, The Prime Minister from the Chairman of the Committee

I write to thank you for the personal briefing arranged for me, on behalf of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, at Downing Street yesterday on the contents of Sir Peter Gibson's full, classified report on intelligence relating to the Omagh bombing of August 1998.

I must also say, however, that neither I nor my Committee find it satisfactory that we have not been granted access to the full report, which has, as you will know, been made available to the Intelligence and Security Committee.

I must therefore renew my Committee's request that I be allowed to view the full report on its behalf, and I may point out that my Committee has chosen, because of the importance of the report and because of our respect for the need to maintain its confidentiality, not to press its legitimate claim that all 13 of its Members should be enabled to see the full report.

The Northern Ireland Affairs Committee is charged with overseeing the Government's work in Northern Ireland. The Omagh bombing was the single biggest atrocity to occur during the Troubles, and my Committee has met frequently with the support group for the victims and survivors, whom I know you also met yesterday. My Committee expects to meet the group again in Belfast next month.

It is my Committee's view that we cannot properly conduct our work in relation to Omagh unless we are fully informed of the facts surrounding the bombing.

I must therefore request that I be granted access to Sir Peter's full, classified report, with due regard to the need to maintain its confidentiality, at the earliest possible date.

12 February 2009

Letter to the Chairman of the Committee from Rt. Hon Gordon Brown MP, the Prime Minister

Thank you for your letter of 12 February.

When I met the Omagh families on 11 February, I explained the legal and national security constraints which prevented further disclosure of Sir Peter's full, classified report. I assured them that the public version of the report was an accurate and wholly consistent reflection of the full report. I hope you too can accept my assurances on these matters.

I understand your wish to be fully appraised of the facts surrounding the Omagh bombing. These are set out comprehensively and authoritatively in the published version of Sir Peter's report. I am sure that Kim Howells, as Chairman of the ISC would agree that to be the case, and I trust he would also feel in a position to offer you the same assurances as me regarding its consistency with the full classified version.

5 March 2009

Letter to Rt Hon. Dr Kim Howells MP, Chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee from the Chairman of the Committee

I am enclosing copies of an exchange of correspondence with the Prime Minister.

As you will see, I am, at my Committee's request, continuing to press to see the report but I would never the less appreciate a word with you at some stage over the next couple of weeks as the Committee did decide, in principle, that it wished to ask Sir Peter to give us evidence.

The Committee will be in Northern Ireland for the first three days of next week but I will be here on Thursday 19^th and every sitting day thereafter until the House rises for the Easter Recess.

With warmest wishes.

12 March 2009

Letter to Rt Hon. Gordon Brown MP, the Prime Minister from the Chairman of the Committee

Thank you for your letter of 5^th March which I reported to my Committee at our meeting yesterday.

It is not a question of our trusting or not trusting you. That is not the issue. The Committee feels very strongly that as all the Members of another Committee in the House have access to the full version of this report I, as Chairman of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, which is itself conducting an inquiry into this matter, ought to be able to see the report in full. I hope you will understand that my not having had a chance to do this on behalf of the Committee will place us in a potentially difficult position when we are asked for reassurances by the Omagh families and when we come to question Mr Ware. We also have it in mind to call Sir Peter Gibson to give evidence.

I am more than happy to read the report under supervision and not to make any notes, and my Committee would be quite content with such an arrangement, but, in the circumstances, I would, with great respect, ask you to reconsider your decision.

12 March 2009

Letter to the Chairman of the Committee from Rt Hon. Dr Kim Howells, Chairman, Intelligence and Security Committee

Thank you for your letter of 12 March regarding Sir Peter Gibson's report on the Omagh bombing, and for sight of your letter to the Prime Minister requesting sight of the full classified version of the report.

I thought you might find it helpful if I set out my Committee's involvement in this matter. As you know the Intelligence and Security Committee, which I chair, was established under the Intelligence Services Act 1994 with a statutory remit to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the security and intelligence Agencies. We are able to fulfil that remit because the same Act sets out the statutory basis on which we are afforded access to sensitive and highly classified information which Agency Heads would otherwise be under a statutory duty not to disclose. By virtue of these arrangements the Intelligence and Security Committee are able to see information that would not be disclosed to select committees of the House. The sensitive information in Sir Peter's full report falls into this category and it is for this reason that the Prime Minister made arrangements for the ISC alone to receive a copy.

In light of your Committee's current deliberations you may wish to be aware that, having considered the full report, my view - and that of the Committee members (who are drawn from all major parties) - is that the published version of Sir Peter's report reflects the full classified version. I can assure you that there is nothing in the full report that is at variance with his published conclusions. In particular, my Committee has no doubt that Sir Peter is correct in concluding that there was no intelligence available that could have prevented the bombing if acted upon by the police.

It is also clear to my Committee that the families have been caused needless further distress by the misleading allegations in last September's Panorama programme - allegations which Sir Peter has emphatically refuted. You may wish to know that I have written to the Director General of the BBC seeking his comments on this matter.

I would be very happy to discuss this further if you would find that helpful.

31 March 2009

Letter to Rt Hon. Dr Kim Howells MP, Chairman, Intelligence and Security Committee from the Chairman of the Committee

Thank you for your letter. I note carefully what you say and I am grateful to you for your personal reassurances. Naturally I will share your letter with my Committee although I think that they will still feel that it would be appropriate, that, as Chairman of the Committee, I should see the full version of this report.

2 April 2009

Letter to the Chairman of the Committee from Rt Hon. Gordon Brown MP, the Prime Minister

Thank you for your letter of 12 March.

I remain unable to accede to your request for personal access to Sir Peter Gibson's full report which contains a considerable amount of sensitive information on the security and intelligence Agencies' sources, methods and capabilities. While I respect the important role the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee has in exercising Parliamentary oversight of the Northern Ireland Office and other matters within the responsibility of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, it is the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) which has the statutory responsibility to oversee the work of the Agencies. It is able to do so because of the statutory and other safeguards governing its access to sensitive information which the Agency Heads otherwise are under a statutory duty not to disclose. It is for that reason that I was able to afford the ISC access to Sir Peter's full report but I cannot authorise further disclosure.

8 April 2009

Letter to Rt Hon. Gordon Brown MP, the Prime Minister from the Chairman of the Committee

SIR PETER GIBSON'S REVIEW OF INTELLIGENCE RELATING TO OMAGH

Thank you for your letter of 8 April, which I have, of course, reported to my Committee.

While noting carefully all that you say, the Committee has today asked me to emphasise that it is unanimous in expressing its disappointment that its Chairman is precluded from seeing the most relevant of all documents relating to the most horrific of all atrocities during or after the period of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The Committee will wish to raise its concerns when it next has a private session with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

The Committee will see Sir Peter Gibson himself on 13 May.

22 April 2009

Letter to Rt Hon. Gordon Brown MP, the Prime Minister from the Chairman of the Committee

You will recall that I have twice previously written to you requesting access on behalf of my Committee to the full, classified report provided by Sir Peter Gibson on intelligence intercepts related to the Omagh bombing.

My Committee has unanimously asked me to write to you once more following our evidence session with Sir Peter last week, a copy of the transcript[15] of which is attached to this letter.

You will note that Sir Peter himself would not have objected to my seeing his report (Q 135), saying, "I would have been delighted that as many people as possible should see the full report, so that they could see for themselves the extent to which chapter and verse had been provided". You will note, too, Sir Peter's view that his summary report "has not achieved … all that much, particularly if those who see my summary report are not convinced" (Q 166).

I ask once more that I might see the full, classified report so that I may reassure my Committee on its contents.

20 May 2009

Letter to Rt Hon. Gordon Brown MP, the Prime Minister from the Chairman of the Committee

I wonder if you are yet in a position to respond to my letter of 20^th May?

29 June 2009

Letter to the Chairman of the Committee from Rt Hon. Gordon Brown MP, the Prime Minister

Thank you for your letter of 20 May in which you repeat your request for access to Sir Peter's full report in order to reassure your Committee on its contents.

I can add little to my letter of 8 April in which I explained why I cannot accede to your request.

You quote Sir Peter as saying in evidence to your Committee that he would not have objected to you seeing the full report and "would have been delighted that as many people as possible should see the full report so that they could see for themselves the extent to which chapter and verse had been provided". I note, however, that he qualified all those remarks by saying "if [he] was to lay aside all thoughts about security and secrecy".

I am not in a position to lay aside my responsibilities for the protection of national security. The published version of Sir Peter's report omits only the extensive, sensitive detail of Agency sources, methods and capabilities which must continue to be protected from unnecessary or unauthorised disclosure for national security considerations. The Intelligence and Security Committee, which has the statutory responsibility and statutory capability to oversee the work of the Agencies, has seen the full report and is satisfied on that point. I have previously assured you that Sir Peter's full report is entirely consistent with the full classified version and you now have Sir Peter's categorical assurance to that effect as well.

You also have Sir Peter's unequivocal assurance that the Omagh bombing could not have been prevented by the better use of any intelligence that might have existed at the time, and that there is nothing in the full report which supports the concern among the Omagh families about whether those who carried out the bombing could have been quickly identified and arrested in the immediate aftermath. I have said as much myself, including to representatives of the families. I trust that your Committee will feel able to accept Sir Peter's evidence on these matters.

29 June 2009

Letter to the Chairman of the Committee from Rt Hon. Tessa Jowell MP, Minister for the Cabinet Office, the Olympics and London and Paymaster General

Thank you for your letter of 20 May to the Prime Minister on intelligence intercepts related to the Omagh Bombing in which you repeat your request for access to Sir Peter Gibson's full report. I have been asked to reply.

I can add little to the Prime Minister's letter of 8 April in which he explained why he cannot accede to your request.

You quote Sir Peter as saying to your Committee that he would not have objected to you seeing the full report and "would have been delighted that as many people as possible should see the full report so that they could see for themselves the extent to which chapter and verse had been provided". I note, however, that he qualified all those remarks by saying "if [he] was to lay aside all thoughts about security and secrecy".

The Government must ensure that national security is protected. The published version of Sir Peter's report only omits the sensitive detail of Agency sources, methods and capabilities for reasons of national security. The Intelligence and Security Committee, which has the statutory responsibility to oversee the work of the Agencies, has seen the full report and is satisfied. The Prime Minister previously assured you that Sir Peter's full report was entirely consistent with the full classified version.

You also have Sir Peter's assurance that the Omagh bombing could not have been prevented by the better use of any intelligence that existed. He also provided assurance that there is nothing in the full report which supports the concern among the Omagh families that those who carried out the bombing could have been quickly identified and arrested in the immediate aftermath. I trust that your Committee will feel able to accept Sir Peter's evidence on these matters.

30 June 2009