MI5 has admitted it provided “incorrect information” to the English courts in a case concerning an agent accused of domestic abuse.
Sir Ken McCallum, the security service’s director-general, offered an “unreserved apology” on Wednesday after the BBC said MI5 had “lied” to protect the identity of an agent who allegedly attacked his partner with a machete.
Home secretary Yvette Cooper ordered a review after confirming that the service had “corrected previously incorrect evidence” that it had provided to the High Court and the Investigatory Powers Tribunal. She said it was a “very serious matter”.
The domestic intelligence agency told judges that it had not confirmed or denied to the BBC whether the individual accused of attacking his girlfriend was one of its agents, the broadcaster reported on Wednesday.
The BBC said MI5 had in fact disclosed his status to one of its journalists, whose reporting about the agent’s activities the UK authorities were seeking to prevent from being made public.
“It has become clear that MI5 provided incorrect information to the High Court in relation to an aspect of our witness statement,” McCallum said in a statement on Wednesday.
He said the service “took steps to correct” the statement as soon as it “became aware of the issue”.
“We take our duty to provide truthful, accurate and complete information very seriously, and have offered an unreserved apology to the court,” he added.
Cooper said: “MI5 do an incredibly difficult and important job every single day to keep our country safe from a wide range of threats, working to the highest of standards, and it is of course essential that those high standards must always be maintained.”
