Spy agencies to have veto over phone taps in court evidence

[TonyGosling]

Spy agencies to have veto over phone taps in court evidence
February 7, 2008 - The Times - Richard Ford, Home Correspondent

The intelligence services and the police will have a veto on evidence from phone taps being used in courts, under plans to allow intercept material in criminal proceedings.

Gordon Brown paved the way for material from intercepts to be used in courts but set up a series of hurdles, including giving a veto to MI5, MI6, GCHQ and the police.

He said work would begin on finding ways to meet the stringent conditions laid down in an edited report on intercept evidence by a team headed by Sir John Chilcot, former permanent secretary at the Northern Ireland Office, published yesterday.

Mr Brown told MPs that though the report concluded that it should be possible to find a way to use “some intercept evidence” in prosecutions in England and Wales, important conditions to safeguard national security had to be met. He told MPs in a statement that this would involve “a substantial programme of work covering legal, operational and technical issues”. An “implementation team” within Whitehall will work alongside members of the Chilcot committee to try to find a way round these problems.......

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article3321852.ece