Investigatory Powers Bill needed to keep country safe, says MI5 chief

Andrew Parker, director general of MI5, has said that the Investigatory Powers Bill, which will grant additional powers to intercept communication data, is needed to keep the country safe.

Making a speech one week before the publication of the Bill, Parker said that the terrorist threat to the UK is currently greater than at any other point in his career and that the new powers to intercept communications data were vital in helping MI5 thwart future terror attacks. He also stressed that ‘strict safeguards’ would be in place to protect the privacy of the public.

Referring to the bill, Parker said: “We do not seek sweeping new intrusive powers in that legislation, but rather a modern legal framework that reflects the way that technology has moved on, and that allows us to continue to keep the country safe.”

The MI5 chief spoke of a three dimensional threat - at home, overseas and online - and explained that in the last 12 months his agency had prevented six terror plots in the UK and seven abroad.

He said: “More than 750 extremists from this country have travelled to Syria, and the growth in the threat shows no sign of abating.

“We are seeing plots against the UK directed by terrorists in Syria; enabled through contacts with terrorists in Syria; and inspired online by ISIL’s sophisticated exploitation of technology.”

He added: “It may not yet have reached the high water mark, and despite the successes we have had, we can never be confident of stopping everything. The death of 31 British nationals in the Sousse attacks in June was an appalling reminder of the threat.”

In attempt to assuage privacy concerns related to the new Investigatory Powers Bill, Parker explained that the MI5 would only access communications ‘under a warrant authorised by the Home Secretary’ and that it could not ‘go browsing at will through the lives of innocent people’.