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Hague: Snooping claim 'baseless'

The Foreign Secretary has dismissed claims that spy centre GCHQ used private data from US security agencies to circumvent British laws are "baseless."

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Monitoring of UK citizens 'requires lawful authority'

Tory Sir Malcolm Rifkind, chairman of the committee of MPs and peers which overseas the work of security services said GCHQ would need authority for any request to monitor emails of a UK citizen, even if it was carried out by US agencies. Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said:

One of the big questions that's being asked is if British intelligence agencies want to seek to know the content of emails, can they get round the normal law in the UK by simply asking an American agency to provide that information?

The law is actually quite clear: if the British intelligence agencies are seeking to know the content of emails by people living in the UK, then they actually have to get lawful authority. Normally that means ministerial authority.

It requires ministerial authority or authority from the relevant senior person. It cannot simply be done by the agencies making their own decision about whose mail they are going to intercept or telephone calls they are going to intercept.

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Hague: Snooping claim 'baseless'

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