Editing MI5 (section)

==History==
===Early years===
The Security Service is derived from the '''Secret Service Bureau''', founded in 1909, and concentrating originally on the activities of the [[German Empire|Imperial German]] government, as a joint initiative of the [[British Admiralty|Admiralty]] and the [[War Office]].  The Bureau was initially split into naval and army sections which, over time, specialised respectively in foreign target [[espionage]] and internal [[counter-espionage]] activities. The former  specialisation was a result of a growing interest at the Admiralty, at the time, in intelligence regarding the fleet of the [[Imperial German Navy]].  This division was formalised, as separate home and foreign sections, prior to the beginning of the [[First World War]].  Following a number of administrative changes, the home section became known as [[Directorate of Military Intelligence (United Kingdom)|Directorate of Military Intelligence]], Section 5 and the abbreviation MI5, the name by which it is still known in popular culture.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.SIS.gov.uk/output/Page470.html|title=SIS Records — War Office Military Intelligence (MI) Sections in the First World War|website=www.SIS.gov.uk|publisher=[[Secret Intelligence Service|SIS]]|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060820014944/http://www.sis.gov.uk/output/Page470.html|archive-date=20 August 2006|access-date=21 November 2018}}</ref> (The foreign/naval section of the Secret Service Bureau was to become the basis of the later Secret Intelligence Service, or [[MI6]].)<ref>{{cite web |last= Whitehead|first=Jennifer|url=https://www.sis.gov.uk/our-mission.html|title=Our mission | publisher =SIS|date=15 July 2016 | access-date=25 August 2017}}</ref>

The founding head of the Army section was [[Vernon Kell]] of the [[South Staffordshire Regiment]], who remained in that role until the early part of the [[Second World War]].  Its role was originally quite restricted, as the section existed solely to ensure national security through counter-espionage.  With a small staff, and working in conjunction with the [[Special Branch (Metropolitan Police)|Special Branch]] of the [[Metropolitan Police]], the service was responsible for overall direction and the identification of foreign agents, while Special Branch provided the manpower for the investigation of their affairs, arrest and interrogation.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.Telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1497979/End-for-Special-Branch-after-122-years.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.Telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1497979/End-for-Special-Branch-after-122-years.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=End for Special Branch after 122 years|website=www.Telegraph.co.uk|date=9 September 2005|publisher=The Telegraph|access-date=21 November 2018}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

On the day after the declaration of the First World War, the Home Secretary, [[Reginald McKenna]], announced that "within the last twenty-four hours no fewer than twenty-one spies, or suspected spies, have been arrested in various places all over the country, chiefly in important military or naval centres, some of them long known to the authorities to be spies".<ref>{{Cite Hansard|speaker=[[Reginald McKenna]]|position=Home Secretary|date=5 August 1914|title=Aliens Restriction Bill|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1914/aug/05/aliens-restriction-bill|house=[[House of Commons]]|column=1985}}</ref> These arrests have provoked recent historical controversy.  According to the official history of MI5, the actual number of agents identified was 22, and Kell had started sending out letters to local police forces on 29 July, giving them advance warning of arrests to be made as soon as war was declared.  [[Portsmouth Constabulary]] jumped the gun and arrested one on 3 August, and not all of the 22 were in custody by the time that McKenna made his speech, but the official history regards the incident as a devastating blow to [[Imperial Germany]], which deprived them of their entire spy ring, and specifically upset the Kaiser.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Christopher|last=Andrew|title=The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5|publisher=Allen Lane|year=2009|pages=49–52}}</ref>

In 2006, his article 'Entering the Lists' was published in the journal ''Intelligence and National Security'', outlining the products of his research into recently opened files.<ref>{{Cite journal|first=Nicholas|last=Hiley|title=Entering the Lists: MI5's great spy round-up of August 1914|journal=Intelligence and National Security|volume=21|issue=1|year=2006|pages=46–76|doi=10.1080/02684520600568303|s2cid=154556503}}</ref>  Hiley was sent an advance copy of the official history, and objected to the retelling of the story.  He later wrote another article, 'Re-entering the Lists', which asserted that the list of those arrested published in the official history<ref>{{Cite book|first=Christopher|last=Andrew|title=The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5|publisher=Allen Lane|year=2009|pages=873–875}}</ref> was concocted from later case histories.<ref>{{Cite journal|first=Nicholas|last=Hiley|title=Re-entering the Lists: MI5's Authorized History and the August 1914 Arrests|journal=Intelligence and National Security|volume=25|issue=4|year=2010|pages=415–452|doi=10.1080/02684527.2010.537022|s2cid=153404992}}</ref>

===Inter-war period===
MI5 proved consistently successful throughout the rest of the 1910s and 1920s in its core counter-espionage role.  Throughout the First World War, Germany continually attempted to infiltrate Britain, but MI5 was able to identify most, if not all, of the agents dispatched. MI5 used a method that depended on strict control of entry and exit to the country and, crucially, large-scale inspection of mail. In post-war years, attention turned to attempts by the [[Soviet Union]] and the [[Comintern]] to surreptitiously support revolutionary activities within Britain. MI5's expertise, combined with the early incompetence of the Soviets, meant the bureau was successful in correctly identifying and closely monitoring these activities.<ref>{{Cite news|url= https://www.Telegraph.co.uk/history/10755313/How-MI5-combated-Communist-attempts-to-take-over-the-scouts.html|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140410114821/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/10755313/How-MI5-combated-Communist-attempts-to-take-over-the-scouts.html|url-status= dead|archive-date= 10 April 2014|title= How MI5 combated Communist attempts to take over the scouts|website= www.Telegraph.co.uk|publisher= The Telegraph|date= 10 April 2014|access-date=21 November 2018}}</ref>

In the meantime, MI5's role had grown substantially. Due to the spy hysteria, MI5 had formed with far more resources than it actually needed to track down German spies.  As is common within governmental bureaucracies, this caused the service to expand its role to use its spare resources. MI5 acquired many additional responsibilities during the war.  Most significantly, its strict counter-espionage role blurred considerably. It acquired a much more political role, involving the surveillance not merely of foreign agents, but also of [[Pacifism|pacifist]] and anti-[[conscription]] organisations, and of [[Trade unionism|organised labour]].  This was justified by citing the common belief that foreign influence was at the root of these organisations. Thus, by the end of the First World War, MI5 was a fully-fledged investigating force (although it never had powers of arrest), in addition to being a counter-espionage agency. The expansion of this role continued after a brief post-war power struggle with the head of the [[Special Branch]], Sir [[Basil Thomson]].<ref>{{Cite web|url= http://www.Spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/SSthomson.htm|title=Basil Thomson|website= www.Spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk|publisher=[[Spartacus Educational]]|access-date=1 July 2012|url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120520021351/http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/SSthomson.htm|archive-date= 20 May 2012}}</ref>

After the First World War, budget-conscious politicians regarded Kell's department as unnecessary.  In 1919, MI5's budget was slashed from £100,000 to just £35,000, and its establishment from over 800 officers to a mere 12. At the same time, Sir [[Basil Thomson]] of Special Branch was appointed Director of Home Intelligence, in supreme command of all domestic counter-insurgency and counter-intelligence investigations.  Consequently, as official MI5 historian [[Christopher Andrew (historian)|Christopher Andrew]] has noted in his official history ''Defence of the Realm'' (2010), MI5 had no clearly defined role in the [[Anglo-Irish War]] of 1919–1921. To further worsen the situation, several of Kell's officers defected to Thomson's new agency, the Home Intelligence Directorate.  MI5 therefore undertook no tangible intelligence operations of consequence during the [[Irish War of Independence]].  MI5 did undertake the training of [[British Army]] case-officers from the Department of Military Intelligence (DMI), for the Army's so-called "Silent Section", otherwise known as M04(x). Quickly trained by MI5 veterans at [[Cavalry Barracks, Hounslow|Hounslow Barracks]], outside London, these freshly-minted M04(x) Army case-officers were deployed to [[Dublin]] beginning in the spring of 1919.  Over time, 175 officers were trained and dispatched to Ireland. In Ireland, they came under the command of General [[Cecil Romer]] and his Deputy, Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Searle Hill-Dillon.<ref>{{Cite web|url= http://www.BloodySunday.co.uk/castle-intelligence/hill-dillon/hill-dillon.html |title= Stephen Searle Hill-Dillon|website= www.BloodySunday.co.uk|publisher= Bloody Sunday|access-date= 21 November 2018}}</ref>

In April 1919, Colonel Walter Wilson of the Department of Military Intelligence arrived in Dublin to take over the day-to-day management of these 175 Army intelligence-officers, and the unit was designated as the "Dublin District Special Branch" (DMI/MO4(x)/DDSB), because it operated exclusively within the confines of the Army's Dublin Military District. Royal Marine Colonel [[Hugh Montgomery (Royal Marines officer)|Hugh Montgomery]] of the Department of Naval Intelligence, was also seconded to Romer's intelligence staff at this time.<ref name="Hittle">{{Cite book|first= J. B. E.|last= Hittle|author-link= J.B.E. Hittle|title= Michael Collins and the Anglo-Irish War: Britain's Failed Counterinsurgency|location= Washington, D.C.|publisher= Potomac Books|year= 2011|isbn= 978-1-59797-535-3}}</ref> British Army after-action reports and contemporary accounts indicate that M04(x)/DDSB was considered by some a highly amateurish outfit. Serious cover constraints, coupled with alcohol abuse and social fraternisation with local prostitutes would prove the downfall of several of these amateur sleuths.<ref name="Hittle" /> Despite these failings, it was not MI5, but one of Basil Thomson's agents, John Charles Byrnes, a [[double agent]] within the IRA, who identified [[Michael Collins (Irish leader)|Michael Collins]], and came close to arranging his capture. The IRA identified Byrnes as a British spy and murdered him in March 1920.<ref>{{Cite web |url= http://www.BloodySunday.co.uk/castle-intelligence/thomson/byrnes/charles-byrnes.html|title=John Charles Byrnes or Jack Jameson|website=www.BloodySunday.co.uk}}</ref>

The intelligence staff of Michael Collins [[Irish Republican Army]] penetrated the unit.<ref>{{Cite book|first= T. Ryle|last=Dwyer|year=2005|title=The Squad and the Intelligence Operations of Michael Collins|location= Cork |publisher=[[Mercier Press]]|isbn=978-1-85635-469-1}}</ref>  Using DMP detectives [[Ned Broy]] and [[David Nelligan]], Michael Collins was able to learn the names and lodgings of the M04(x) agents, referred to by IRA operatives as "The Cairo Gang". On "[[Bloody Sunday (1920)|Bloody Sunday]]", 21 November 1920, Collins ordered his counter-intelligence unit, [[The Squad (IRA unit)|The Squad]], to assassinate 25 M04(x) agents, several British courts-martial officers, at least one agent reporting to Basil Thomson, and several intelligence officers attached to the [[Royal Irish Constabulary Auxiliary Division]], at their lodgings throughout Dublin.<ref name="Hittle" /> That afternoon, a mixed force of the British Army, the [[Royal Irish Constabulary]], and the [[Black and Tans]] retaliated by indiscriminately shooting dead 14 civilians at a [[Gaelic Football]] match at [[Croke Park]].<ref>{{Cite news|url= https://www.BBC.co.uk/news/world-europe-13434653|title= Croke Park: Queen in emotionally charged visit|publisher=[[BBC News]]|date=18 May 2011|access-date=1 July 2012}}</ref> 

The net impact of Collins's strike of Bloody Sunday, 21 November 1920, was relatively negligible, even though the IRA had not gone up against MI5 professionals, but instead only against a quickly trained outfit of amateur army "D-Listers".<ref name="Hittle" /> Although the shooting of 14 British officers had the desired effect on British morale, other aspects were botched by the IRA. Three of Collins's men were apprehended after engaging in a shoot-out on the street, and at least two of the wounded British officers had no connection whatsoever to British intelligence. Moreover, with MO4(x) having fielded a total of 175 agents of the DDSB, Collins's operation only temporarily slowed British momentum.  Within days, the remaining 160-odd M04(x) agents were re-established in secure quarters inside solidly loyalist hotels in Dublin, from where they continued to pursue Collins and the IRA relentlessly right up until the truce of July 1921.<ref name="Hittle" />

In December 1920, the entire DDSB was transferred from [[British Army]] command to civil command under Deputy Police Commissioner General Ormonde Winter, and thereafter was known as "D Branch" within Dublin Castle. By January 1921, the highly experienced [[MI6]] operative David Boyle arrived at Dublin Castle to take over the day-to-day management of D Branch.  The unit's former commander, Colonel Wilson, resigned in protest against having had his command taken from him. D Branch thrived under Boyle's leadership.<ref name="Hittle" /> 

In 1921, Sir [[Warren Fisher (civil servant)|Warren Fisher]], the government inspector-general for civil-service affairs, conducted a thorough review of the operations and expenditures of Basil Thomson's Home Intelligence Directorate. He issued a scathing report, accusing Thomson of wasting both money and resources, and conducting redundant as well as ineffectual operations. Shortly thereafter, in a private meeting with Prime Minister [[David Lloyd George]], Sir Basil Thomson was sacked, and the Home Intelligence Directorate was formally abolished.  With Thomson out of the way, [[Special Branch]] was returned to the command of the Commissioner of The Criminal Investigation Division at [[Scotland Yard]]. Only then was Vernon Kell able once again to rebuild MI5 and re-establish it in its former place as Britain's chief domestic spy agency.<ref name=Hittle/>

MI5 operated in Italy during inter-war period, and helped [[Benito Mussolini]] get his start in politics with a £100 weekly wage.<ref name=Guardian2009-10-13>{{Cite news|first=Tom|last=Kington|date=13 October 2009|title= Recruited by MI5: the name's Mussolini. Benito Mussolini |url=https://www.TheGuardian.com/world/2009/oct/13/benito-mussolini-recruited-mi5-italy|website=[[The Guardian]]|location=London|access-date=14 October 2009}}</ref> MI5's efficiency in counter-espionage declined from the 1930s. It was to some extent a victim of its own success as it was unable to break the ways of thinking it had evolved in the 1910s and 1920s. In particular, it was unable to adjust to the new methods of the Soviet intelligence services, the [[NKVD|People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs]] (NKVD) and [[GRU (G.U.)|Main Intelligence Directorate]] (GRU). It continued to think in terms of agents who would attempt to gather information simply through observation or bribery, or to agitate within labour organisations and the armed services, while posing as ordinary citizens. The NKVD, meanwhile, had evolved more sophisticated methods; it began to recruit agents from within the [[upper classes]] (most notably from [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge University]]), whom it regarded as a long-term investment. Such NKVD agents succeeded in gaining positions within the government, and, in [[Kim Philby |Kim Philby's]] case, within British intelligence itself, from where they were able to provide the NKVD with sensitive information.  The most successful of these agents; [[Kim Philby|Harold 'Kim' Philby]], [[Donald Duart Maclean|Donald Maclean]], [[Guy Burgess]], [[Anthony Blunt]], and [[John Cairncross]]; went undetected until after the [[World War II|Second World War]], and became known as the [[Cambridge Five]].<ref name="CambridgeBBC">{{Cite web|url= https://www.BBC.co.uk/history/historic_figures/spies_cambridge.shtml|title=Historic Figures: The Cambridge Spies |publisher=[[BBC|British Broadcasting Corporation]]|access-date=1 July 2012}}</ref>

===Second World War===
One of the earliest actions of [[Winston Churchill]] on coming to power in early 1940 was to sack the agency's long-term head, [[Vernon Kell]].  He was replaced initially by the ineffective [[Oswald Allen Harker]], as Acting Director General.  Harker in turn was quickly replaced by [[David Petrie]], a [[Secret Intelligence Service]] (SIS) man, with Harker remaining as his deputy.  With the ending of the [[Battle of Britain]], and the abandonment of invasion plans (correctly reported by both SIS and the [[Bletchley Park]] [[Ultra (cryptography)|Ultra]] project), the spy scare eased, and the internment policy was gradually reversed.  This eased pressure on MI5, and allowed it to concentrate on its major wartime success, the so-called [[Double Cross System|'double-cross' system]].<ref name="Masterman">{{Cite book|last=Masterman|first=John Cecil|author-link=John Cecil Masterman|year=1972|orig-year=1945|title=The Double-Cross System in the War of 1939 to 1945|publisher=[[Australian National University Press]]|isbn=978-0-7081-0459-0}}</ref>  This was a system based on an internal memo drafted by an MI5 officer in 1936, which criticised the long-standing policy of arresting and sending to trial all enemy agents discovered by MI5.  Several had offered to defect to Britain when captured; before 1939, such requests were invariably turned down.  The memo advocated attempting to 'turn' captured agents wherever possible, and use them to mislead enemy intelligence agencies.  This suggestion was turned into a massive and well-tuned system of deception during the Second World War.<ref name="Masterman" />

Beginning with the capture of an agent named [[Arthur Owens]], codenamed 'Snow', MI5 began to offer enemy agents the chance to avoid prosecution (and thus the possibility of the death penalty) if they would work as British [[double-agent]]s.  Agents who agreed to this were supervised by MI5 in transmitting bogus 'intelligence' back to the German secret service, the [[Abwehr]].  This necessitated a large-scale organisational effort, since the information had to appear valuable but actually be misleading.  A high-level committee, the Wireless Board, was formed to provide this information.  The day-to-day operation was delegated to a sub-committee, the Twenty Committee (so called because the Roman numerals for twenty, XX, form a double cross).<ref name=Masterman/> The system was extraordinarily successful.  A post-war analysis of German intelligence records found that of the 115 or so agents targeted against Britain during the war, all but one (who committed suicide) had been successfully identified and caught, with several 'turned' to become double agents.  The system played a major part in the massive campaign of deception which preceded the [[D-Day]] landings, designed to give the Germans a false impression of the location and timings of the landings (see [[Operation Fortitude]]).<ref name=Masterman/>

While the double-cross work dealt with enemy agents sent into Britain, a smaller-scale operation run by [[Victor Rothschild, 3rd Baron Rothschild|Victor Rothschild]] targeted British citizens who wanted to help Germany.  The '[[Fifth Column (intelligence operation)|Fifth Column]]' operation saw an MI5 officer, [[Eric Roberts (spy)|Eric Roberts]], masquerade as the [[Gestapo|Gestapo's]] man in London, encouraging Nazi sympathisers to pass him information about people who would be willing to help Germany in the event of invasion.  When his recruits began bringing in intelligence, he promised to pass that on to Berlin. The operation was deeply controversial within MI5, with opponents arguing that it amounted to entrapment.  By the end of the war, Roberts had identified around 500 people.  But MI5 decided not to prosecute, and instead covered the work up, even giving some of Roberts' recruits Nazi medals. They were never told the truth.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hutton|first=Robert|date=2019|title=Agent Jack : the true story of MI5's secret Nazi hunter|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson|isbn=978-1474605137|oclc=994362312}}</ref>

All foreigners entering the country were processed at the [[London Reception Centre]] (LRC) at the [[Royal Victoria Patriotic Building]], which was operated by MI5 subsection B1D; 30,000 were inspected at LRC. Captured enemy agents were taken to [[Camp 020]], [[Latchmere House]], for interrogation.  This was commanded by Colonel Robin Stephens. There was a reserve camp, Camp 020R, at [[Huntercombe (HM Prison)|Huntercombe]], which was used mainly for long term detention of prisoners.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Oliver|last=Hoare|year=2000|title=Camp 020: MI5 and the Nazi Spies — the official history of MI5's wartime interrogation centre|publisher=[[Public Record Office]]|isbn=978-1-903365-08-3}}</ref> It is believed that two MI5 officers participated in "a gentle interrogation" given to the senior Nazi [[Heinrich Himmler]] after his arrest at a military checkpoint in the northern German village of Bremervörde in May 1945.  Himmler subsequently killed himself during a medical examination by a British officer by means of a cyanide capsule that he had concealed in his mouth.  One of the MI5 officers, [[Sidney Henry Noakes]] of the [[Intelligence Corps (United Kingdom)|Intelligence Corps]], was subsequently given permission to keep Himmler's [[Suspenders|brace]]s and the forged identity document that had led to his arrest.<ref name="BBCNoakes">{{Cite web|url=https://www.BBC.co.uk/news/uk-52755565|title=Heinrich Himmler: how a fake stamp led to the Nazi SS leader's capture|website=www.BBC.co.uk|date=23 May 2020|publisher=[[BBC News]]|access-date=25 May 2020}}</ref><ref name="Mil-Intel">{{Cite web|title=Sidney Noakes Intelligence Corps officer with MI5: Himmler's false identity document|url=https://www.MilitaryIntelligenceMuseum.org/sidney-noakes|website=www.MilitaryIntelligenceMuseum.org|publisher=Military Intelligence Museum|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200525084642/https://www.militaryintelligencemuseum.org/sidney-noakes|access-date=25 May 2020|archive-date=25 May 2020|url-status=live}}</ref>

===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>

===The Security Service's role in counter-terrorism===
[[File:Thames house exterior.jpg|thumb|Part of [[Thames House]]]]
The end of the [[Cold War]] resulted in a change in emphasis for the operations of the service, assuming responsibility for the investigation of all [[Irish republicanism|Irish republican]] activity within Britain,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.NYTimes.com/2012/05/20/world/europe/7-suspected-of-ties-to-ira-faction-are-charged-with-terrorism.html|title=7 tied to faction of the IRA face terrorism charges|date=19 May 2012|website=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=20 November 2011}}</ref> and increasing the effort countering other forms of terrorism, particularly in more recent years the more widespread threat of [[Islamic extremism]].<ref>{{Cite web|first=Alasdair|last=Palmer|date=14 May 2006|url=https://www.Telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1518320/MI5-mission-impossible.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.Telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1518320/MI5-mission-impossible.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=MI5 mission: impossible|publisher=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|access-date=1 July 2012}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

Whilst the British security forces in [[Northern Ireland]] have provided support in the countering of both [[Irish republicanism|republican]] and [[Ulster loyalism|loyalist]] [[paramilitary]] groups since the early 1970s, republican sources have often accused these forces of [[collusion]] with loyalists.  In 2006, an Irish government committee inquiry found that there was widespread collusion between British security forces and loyalist terrorists in the 1970s, which resulted in eighteen deaths.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.IrishTimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2006/1129/breaking86.htm|title=Barron finds British collusion in attacks |url-access=subscription |date=29 November 2006|publisher=[[The Irish Times]] |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://archive.today/20130127075813/http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2006/1129/breaking86.html |archive-date= 27 January 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://Burnsmoley.com/pages/collusion/reports/Kays_Tavern.pdf|title=Final report on the Report of the Independent Commission of Inquiry into the Bombing of Kay's Tavern, Dundalk|date=November 2006|website=Burns Moley|publisher=[[Houses of the Oireachtas]]|access-date=20 November 2011|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081026014447/http://burnsmoley.com/pages/collusion/reports/Kays_Tavern.pdf|archive-date=26 October 2008}}</ref>  In 2012, a document based review by [[Desmond de Silva (barrister)|Sir Desmond de Silva]] [[Queen's Counsel|QC]] into the 1989 murder of Belfast solicitor [[Pat Finucane (solicitor)|Patrick Finucane]] found that MI5 had colluded with the [[Ulster Defence Association]] (UDA).<ref name=PatFinucaneReview>{{Cite web|url=http://www.PatFinucaneReview.org/report/volume01/chapter011/|title=Volume 1 chapter 11: The flow of information from members of the security forces to the UDA |publisher=Pat Finucane Review|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121216022945/http://www.patfinucanereview.org/report/volume01/chapter011/|archive-date=16 December 2012|url-status=dead|access-date=28 November 2017}}</ref>  The review disclosed that MI5 assessments of UDA intelligence consistently noted that the majority came from MI5 sources, with an assessment in 1985 finding 85% came from MI5.<ref name=PatFinucaneReview/>  [[Prime Minister]] [[David Cameron]] accepted the findings, and apologised on behalf of the British government, and acknowledged significant levels of collusion with Loyalists in its state agencies.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Pat Finucane murder: 'Shocking state collusion', says PM|url=https://www.BBC.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-20662412|publisher=[[BBC News]]|date=12 December 2012|access-date=16 July 2017}}</ref>

On 10 October 2007, the lead responsibility for national security intelligence in Northern Ireland returned to the Security Service from the [[Police Service of Northern Ireland]] (PSNI), that had been devolved in 1976 to the [[Royal Ulster Constabulary]] (RUC) during [[Ulsterisation]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=MI5 in Northern Ireland|url=https://www.MI5.gov.uk/mi5-in-northern-ireland|website=www.MI5.gov.uk|publisher=Security Service MI5|access-date=15 July 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Transfer of national security lead to the Security Service|url=http://www.PSNI.Police.uk/index/departments/crime/transfer_of_national_security_lead_to_the_security_service_page.htm|website=www.PSNI.Police.uk|publisher=[[Police Service of Northern Ireland]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080608095622/http://www.psni.police.uk/index/departments/crime/transfer_of_national_security_lead_to_the_security_service_page.htm|archive-date=8 June 2008|url-status=dead|access-date=28 November 2017}}</ref>  During April 2010, the [[Real IRA]] detonated a 120&nbsp;lb [[car bomb]] outside Palace Barracks in [[County Down]], which is the headquarters of MI5 in Northern Ireland and also home to the 2nd Battalion [[The Mercian Regiment]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://News.BBC.co.uk/1/hi/8670037.stm|title=Man arrested over Palace Barracks bomb released|website=News.BBC.co.uk|date=9 May 2010|publisher=[[BBC News]]|access-date=1 July 2012}}</ref>

MI5 is understood to have a close working relationship with the [[Republic of Ireland]]'s [[Special Detective Unit]] (SDU), the counter-terrorism and counter-intelligence section of the [[Garda Síochána]] (national police), particularly with regards to threats from [[dissident republican]] terrorism and [[Islamic terrorism]].<ref>{{Cite news|last=McDonald|first=Henry|date=2 March 2008|title=MI5 targets Ireland's al-Qaeda cells|url=https://www.TheGuardian.com/world/2008/mar/02/alqaida.ireland|website=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=5 June 2014}}</ref>
[[File:MI5-GCHQ Memorial.jpg|alt=Memorial in the cloister of Westminster Abbey, London|thumb|Recognising service at home and abroad protecting the United Kingdom]]
Executive liaison groups enable MI5 to safely share secret, sensitive, and often raw intelligence with the police, on which decisions can be made about how best to gather evidence and prosecute suspects in the courts.  Each organisation works in partnership throughout the investigation, but MI5 retain the lead for collecting, assessing and exploiting intelligence.  The police take lead responsibility for gathering evidence, obtaining arrests, and preventing risks to the public.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Kim|last=Howells|author-link=Kim Howells|date=May 2009|url=http://www.CabinetOffice.gov.uk/media/210852/20090519_77review.pdf|title=Could 7/7 have been prevented? Review of the Intelligence on the London terrorist attacks on 7 July 2005|publisher=UK Cabinet Office, Intelligence and Security Committee|location=London|archive-url=https://swap.stanford.edu/20120503112509/http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/210852/20090519_77review.pdf|archive-date=3 May 2012|access-date=25 May 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Serious crime===
In 1996, legislation formalised the extension of the Security Service's statutory remit to include supporting the law enforcement agencies in their work against serious crime.<ref name=febrefa>{{Cite Hansard|speaker=[[Baroness Blatch]]|position=Minister of State, Home Office|date=10 June 1996|house=[[House of Commons]]|title=Security Service Bill|url=https://Publications.Parliament.uk/pa/ld199596/ldhansrd/vo960610/text/60610-07.htm|column_start=1502|column_end=1503}}</ref>  Tasking was reactive, acting at the request of law enforcement bodies such as the [[National Criminal Intelligence Service]] (NCIS), for whom MI5 officers performed electronic surveillance and eavesdropping duties during [[Clerkenwell crime syndicate|Operation Trinity]].<ref name=febrefa/>  This role has subsequently been passed to the [[Serious Organised Crime Agency]] (SOCA) and then the [[National Crime Agency]] (NCA).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.NationalCrimeAgency.gov.uk/about-us|title=National Crime Agency – About us|website=www.NationalCrimeAgency.gov.uk|publisher=[[National Crime Agency]]|access-date=21 November 2018}}</ref>

===Surveillance===
In 2001, after the [[September 11 attacks]] in the US, MI5 started collecting bulk telephone communications data under a little understood general power of the [[Telecommunications Act 1984]] (instead of the [[Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000]] which would have brought independent oversight and regulation). This was kept secret until announced by the [[Home Secretary]] in 2015.<ref name=BBC-20151105>{{Cite web|first=Gordon|last=Corera|author-link=Gordon Corera|date=5 November 2015|url=https://www.BBC.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34731735|title=How and why MI5 kept phone data spy programme secret|publisher=[[BBC News]]|access-date=9 November 2015}}</ref><ref name=Telegraph-20151104>{{Cite web|first=Tom|last=Whitehead|date=4 November 2015|url=https://www.Telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/11976008/MI5-and-GCHQ-secretly-bulk-collecting-British-publics-phone-and-email-records-for-years-Theresa-May-reveals.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.Telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/11976008/MI5-and-GCHQ-secretly-bulk-collecting-British-publics-phone-and-email-records-for-years-Theresa-May-reveals.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=MI5 and GCHQ secretly bulk collecting British public's phone and email records for years, Theresa May reveals|publisher=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|access-date=9 November 2015}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.TheRegister.co.uk/2015/11/09/hawktalk_wip/|title=Here's the little-known legal loophole that permitted mass surveillance in the UK|website=www.TheRegister.co.uk|publisher=[[The Register]]|date=9 November 2015|access-date=9 November 2015}}</ref> This power was replaced by the [[Investigatory Powers Act 2016]]<ref>{{Cite web|year=2016|title=Investigatory Powers Act 2016|url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2016/25/schedule/10/paragraph/99|website=Legislation.gov.uk}}</ref> which introduced new surveillance powers overseen by the Investigatory Powers Commission (IPC) it introduces.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Investigatory Powers Bill|url=https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7518/CBP-7518.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160323143708/http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7518/CBP-7518.pdf |archive-date=23 March 2016 |url-status=live|website=House of Commons Library}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=30 October 2015 Investigatory Powers Commission factsheet|url=https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/473744/Factsheet-Investigatory_Powers_Commission.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190725233305/https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/473744/Factsheet-Investigatory_Powers_Commission.pdf |archive-date=25 July 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref>

In July 2006, parliamentarian [[Norman Baker]] accused the British Government of "hoarding information about people who pose no danger to this country", after it emerged that MI5 holds secret files on 272,000 individuals, equivalent to one in 160 adults.  It had previously been revealed that a '[[traffic light]]' system operates:<ref>{{Cite Hansard|speaker=[[Jack Straw]]|position=[[Home Secretary]]|date=25 February 1998|house=[[House of Commons]]|title=Security Service files|url=https://Publications.Parliament.uk/pa/cm199798/cmhansrd/vo980225/debtext/80225-16.htm#80225-16_spnew1|column_start=346|column_end=348}}</ref><ref>{{Cite Hansard|house=[[House of Commons]]|title=MI5 files|url=https://Publications.Parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmhansrd/vo060605/text/60605w0055.htm#0606078000026|date=5 June 2006|column=278W}}</ref>
*Green: active; about 10% of files
*Amber: enquiries prohibited, further information may be added; about 46% of files
*Red: enquiries prohibited, substantial information may not be added; about 44% of files.

===Participation of MI5 officers in criminal activity===
In March 2018, the government acknowledged that MI5 officers are allowed to authorise agents to commit criminal activity in the UK.  Maya Foa, the director of [[Reprieve (organisation)|Reprieve]], said: "After a seven-month legal battle, the prime minister has finally been forced to publish her secret order, but we are a long way from having transparency.  The public and parliament are still being denied the guidance that says when British spies can commit criminal offences, and how far they can go. Authorised criminality is the most intrusive power a state can wield.  Theresa May must publish this guidance without delay".<ref name=Guardian-20180302/>

In November 2019, four [[human rights organisation]]s claimed that the UK government has a policy dating from the 1990s to allow MI5 officers to authorise agents or informers to participate in crime, and to immunise them against prosecution for criminal actions.  The organisations said the policy allowed MI5 officers to authorise agents and informers to participate in criminal activities that protected national security or the economic well-being of the UK.  The organisations took the UK government to the [[Investigatory Powers Tribunal]], seeking to have it declare the policy illegal, and to issue an injunction against further 'unlawful conduct'.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Osborne|first=Samuel|date=8 November 2019|title=MI5 licensed informants to commit murder, kidnap and torture for decades, court hears|url=https://www.Independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/mi5-informants-commit-crimes-murder-kidnap-torture-security-service-a9187976.html|website=www.Independent.co.uk|publisher=[[The Independent]]|access-date=9 November 2019}}</ref>  In December 2019, the tribunal dismissed the request of the human rights organisations in a 3-to-2 decision.  The potential criminal activities include murder, kidnap, and torture, according to a [[Bloomberg L.P.|Bloomberg]] report.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Browning|first=Jonathan|date=20 December 2019|title=Court rules British MI5 agents can murder, kidnap and torture|url=https://www.Bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-12-20/licensed-to-kill-court-rules-mi5-can-murder-kidnap-torture|newspaper=Bloomberg.com|publisher=[[Bloomberg L.P.|Bloomberg]]|access-date=2 January 2020}}</ref>

===Allegations of collusion in torture===
In October 2020, [[Rangzieb Ahmed]] brought a civil claim against MI5, alleging that Pakistan's [[Inter-Services Intelligence]] agency had arrested him in 2006, and that MI5 had colluded in torture by submitting questions which were put to him under torture in Pakistan.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.TheGuardian.com/uk-news/2020/oct/27/mi5-colluded-in-pakistans-torture-of-british-terrorist-court-hears?|title=MI5 colluded in Pakistan's torture of British terrorist, court hears|website=[[The Guardian]]|date=27 October 2020}}</ref> This claim was rejected by the High Court on 16 December 2020.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/rangzieb-ahmed-v-director-general-of-security-service-and-others/|title=Rangzieb Ahmed -v- Director General of Security Service and others|publisher=High Court|date=16 December 2020|access-date=31 March 2021}}</ref>