Evaluating Intelligence Oversight Committees: The UK Intelligence and Security Committee and the ‘War on Terror’ PETER GILL After a brief introduction giving a short history of legislative oversight, a number of criteria by which committees can be evaluated are enumerated, including their mandate, membership, resources and access to information. The development of parliamentary oversight in the UK culminating in the creation of the Intelligence and Security Committee in 1994 is outlined. Its performance between 2001 and 2006 is described and assessed. It is concluded that, while it has made some appropriate criticisms of the agencies, it can be faulted in that both the style and substance of its reports are essentially managerialist and have paid inadequate attention to questions of human rights and the need for public education. INTRODUCTION The history of legislative 1 oversight of security intelligence agencies is short. With one or two exceptions, it simply did not exist before the 1970s, though its spread since then has been rapid. There are two main reasons for this: first, the liberalization of former authoritarian states in Europe, Latin America and South Africa has produced a large number of ‘new’ democracies in which oversight of security organs was seen as essential to the legitimacy of the new regimes. Second, in the ‘old’ democracies intelligence oversight was addressed as a response, often, to scandals in which agencies were seen to be abusing their surveillance powers. However, there has been no single answer to the question of what oversight institutions are to be developed. Should external overseers be located in the legislature or in some other body? What should be their mandate, or over what precisely should they have oversight? How are they to be chosen and by whom? Must they be vetted? What powers will they have to obtain access to intelligence personnel and files? To whom do they report? Intelligence and National Security, Vol.22, No.1, February 2007, pp.14 – 37 ISSN 0268-4527 print 1743-9019 online DOI: 10.1080/02684520701200756 ª 2007 Taylor & Francis