Effective Parliamentary Scrutiny of Foreign, Defence and Security Policy - British Foreign Policy Group

Effective Parliamentary Scrutiny of Foreign, Defence and Security Policy - British Foreign Policy Group

National security always contains a strong element of secrecy. Intelligence agencies must inherently be secret, foreign policy must sometimes be devised and conducted in secret, and diplomats must be able to keep secrets. The United Kingdom has traditionally been particularly addicted to secrecy – until the passage of the Intelligence Services Act 1994, the government would not even admit officially that the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) exi…