The Parliamentary Joint Committe on Human Rights has issued a damning report on allegations of the intelligence services’ complicity in torture. The committe is particularly damning on ministers’ failure to address the issue openly:
“Our experience over the past year is that ministers are determined to avoid parliamentary scrutiny and accountability on these matters, refusing requests to give oral evidence; providing a standard answer to some of our written questions, which fails to address the issues; and ignoring other questions entirely.
“Ministers should not be able to act in this way. The fact that they can do so confirms that the system for ministerial accountability for security and intelligence matters is woefully deficient … There is now no other way to restore public confidence in the intelligence services than by setting up an independent inquiry.”
