Editing MI5 (section)

===Post-Second World War===
The Prime Minister's personal responsibility for the service was delegated to the [[Secretary of State for the Home Department|Home Secretary]] [[David Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir|David Maxwell-Fyfe]] in 1952, with a directive issued by the Home Secretary setting out the role and objectives of the Director General.  The service was subsequently placed on a statutory basis in 1989 with the introduction of the Security Service Act.  This was the first government acknowledgement of the existence of the service.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.Archive.Official-Documents.co.uk/document/cm47/4779/4779.htm|title=Security Service Act 1989|website=www.Archive.Official-Documents.co.uk|date=4 July 2000|access-date=1 July 2012}}</ref> The post-war period was a difficult time for the service, with a significant change in the threat as the [[Cold War]] began, being challenged by an extremely active [[KGB]], and increasing incidence of the Northern Ireland conflict, and international [[terrorism]].  Whilst little has yet been released regarding the successes of the service, there have been a number of intelligence failures which have created embarrassment for both the service and the government.  For instance, in 1983, one of its officers, [[Michael Bettaney]], was caught trying to sell information to the KGB.  He was subsequently convicted of espionage.<ref name="SpyTelegraph">{{Cite news|first=David|last=Harrison|date=11 November 2007|url=https://www.Telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1569004/Cold-War-rivals-play-at-spy-game.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.Telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1569004/Cold-War-rivals-play-at-spy-game.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Cold War rivals play at spy game|publisher=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|access-date=1 July 2012}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

Following the [[Michael Bettaney]] case, [[Philip Woodfield]] was appointed as a staff counsellor for the security and intelligence services.  His role was to be available to be consulted by any member or former member of the security and intelligence services who had "anxieties relating to the work of his or her service"<ref>{{Cite Hansard|speaker=[[Malcolm Sinclair, 20th Earl of Caithness|Malcolm Sinclair, The Earl of Caithness]]|position=Minister of State, Home Office|date=30 November 1987|title=Security Services Ombudsman: Access|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1987/nov/30/security-services-ombudsman-access|house=[[House of Lords]]|column=811}}</ref> that it had not been possible to allay through the ordinary processes of management-staff relations, including proposals for publications.<ref>{{Cite Hansard|speaker=[[John Patten, Baron Patten|John Patten]]|position=[[Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department|Minister for Home Affairs]]|date=21 December 1988|title=Official Secrets Bill|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1988/dec/21/official-secrets-bill|house=[[House of Commons]]|column=538}}</ref> The service was instrumental in breaking up a large [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] spy ring at the start of the 1970s, with 105 Soviet embassy staff known or suspected to be involved in intelligence activities being expelled from the country in 1971.<ref name="SpyTelegraph" />

One episode involving MI5 and the [[BBC]] came to light in the mid-1980s. MI5 officer [[Ronnie Stonham]] had an office in the BBC, and took part in vetting procedures.<ref>{{Cite book|first1=Mark|last1=Hollingsworth|first2=Richard|last2=Norton-Taylor|year=1988|title=Blacklist: The Inside Story of Political Vetting|location=London|publisher=[[Hogarth Press]]|page=104|isbn=978-0-70120-811-0}}</ref> Controversy arose when it was alleged that the service was monitoring [[trade union]]s and left-wing politicians. A file was kept on Labour Prime Minister [[Harold Wilson]] from 1945, when he became a [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] (MP), although the agency's official historian, [[Christopher Andrew (historian)|Christopher Andrew]] maintains that his fears of MI5 conspiracies and bugging were unfounded.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://News.BBC.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8288247.stm|title=MI5 kept file on former PM Wilson|website=News.BBC.co.uk|publisher=[[BBC News]]|date=3 October 2009}}</ref> As Home Secretary, the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] MP [[Jack Straw]] discovered the existence of his own file dating from his days as a [[student radical]].<ref>{{Cite news|first=Sarah|last=Schaefer|date=22 January 1999|url=https://www.Independent.co.uk/news/parliament--politics-straw-will-not-see-his-mi5-file-1075428.html|title=Parliament & Politics: Straw will not see his MI5 file|website=www.Independent.co.uk|publisher=[[The Independent]]|access-date=1 July 2012}}</ref>

One of the most significant and far-reaching failures was an inability to conclusively detect and apprehend the '[[Cambridge Five]]' spy ring, which had formed in the inter-war years, and achieved great success in penetrating the government, and the intelligence agencies themselves.<ref name=CambridgeBBC/>  Related to this failure were suggestions of a high-level penetration within the service, [[Peter Wright (MI5 officer)|Peter Wright]] (especially in his controversial book ''[[Spycatcher]]'') and others believing that evidence implicated the former Director General, [[Roger Hollis]], or his deputy [[Graham Russell Mitchell|Graham Mitchell]]. The [[Burke Trend, Baron Trend|Trend]] inquiry of 1974 found the case unproven of that accusation, and that view was later supported by the former KGB officer [[Oleg Gordievsky]].<ref>{{Cite news|first=James|last=Bamford|date=18 November 1990|url=https://www.NYTimes.com/1990/11/18/books/gordievsky-s-people.html|title=Gordievsky's people|website=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=1 July 2012}}</ref>  Another spy ring, the [[Portland spy ring]], exposed after a tip-off by Soviet defector [[Michael Goleniewski]], led to an extensive MI5 surveillance operation.<ref>{{Cite news|first1=Jason|last1=Lewis|first2=Jonathan|last2=Wynne-Jones|date=18 June 2011|url=https://www.Telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/8584157/MI5-labelled-the-Archbishop-of-Canterbury-a-subversive-over-anti-Thatcher-campaigns.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.Telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/8584157/MI5-labelled-the-Archbishop-of-Canterbury-a-subversive-over-anti-Thatcher-campaigns.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=MI5 labelled the Archbishop of Canterbury a subversive over anti-Thatcher campaigns|publisher=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|access-date=1 July 2012}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

In 1991, MI5 revealed its head publicly for the first time and declassified some information, "such as the number of its employees and its organizational structure."<ref name=":0" /> There have been strong accusations levelled against MI5 for having failed in its obligation to provide care for former police agents who had infiltrated the [[Provisional Irish Republican Army|Provisional IRA]] during [[the Troubles]]. The two most notable of the agents, [[Martin McGartland]] and [[Raymond Gilmour]], went on to reside in England using false identities, and in 2012, launched test cases against the agency. Both men claimed to journalist Liam Clarke in the ''Belfast Telegraph'' that they were abandoned by MI5 and were "left high and dry despite severe health problems as a result of their work and lavish promises of life-time care from their former Intelligence bosses". Both men suffer from [[post-traumatic stress disorder]] (PTSD).<ref name="BelfastTelegraph">{{Cite news|first=Liam|last=Clarke|date=14 September 2012|url=http://www.BelfastTelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/two-exspies-target-mi5-in-landmark-legal-battle-over-payouts-16210559.html|title=Two ex-spies target MI6 in landmark legal battle over payouts|website=www.BelfastTelegraph.co.uk|publisher=[[Belfast Telegraph]]|access-date=7 January 2013}}</ref>

Following the [[United States invasion of Afghanistan]], on 9 January 2002, the first MI5 staff arrived at [[Bagram Airfield|Bagram]]. On 12 January 2002, following a report by an [[MI6]] officer that a detainee appeared to have been mistreated before, an MI6 officer was sent instructions that were copied to all MI5 and MI6 staff in Afghanistan about how to deal with concerns over mistreatment, referring to signs of abuse: 'Given that they are not within our custody or control, the law does not require you to intervene to protect this'. It went on to say that the Americans had to understand that the UK did not condone such mistreatment, and that a complaint should be made to a senior US official if there was any coercion by the US in conjunction with an MI6 interview.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Corera|first=Gordon|author-link=Gordon Corera|year=2012|title=MI6: Life and Death in the British Secret Service|publisher=[[W&N]]|isbn=978-0753828335|page=339}}</ref>