BRITAIN:British prime minister Gordon Brown has taken a cautious step towards allowing the limited use of intercept evidence in courts in England and Wales.
However, Mr Brown has rejected Conservative leader David Cameron's assertion that this is now "a matter of political will", while telling MPs that "considerable hurdles" remain to be overcome if an acceptable and workable "intercept as evidence" regime is to be established.
That warning was spelt out yesterday in the long-awaited report of the review group headed by Sir John Chilcot, a former permanent secretary at the Northern Ireland Office.
The Chilcot report confirmed that all the intelligence, security and policing agencies it had spoken to favoured a new legal regime "in principle".
However, the report also stipulated a series of "requirements" to preserve national security interests and giving the intercepting agencies an effective veto over prosecutions involving intercepted materials.
The report and Mr Brown also dashed the hopes of some Labour as well as opposition MPs that a move towards using intercept evidence might affect the government's continuing effort to extend the period for holding terrorist suspects without charge from 28 to 42 days. The Chilcot report cautioned that evidential use of intercept was likely to result in only "a modest increase" in the number of successful prosecutions. It also concluded there was no evidence that use of intercept would enable prosecutions in cases currently dealt with through controversial anti-terror control orders.
Despite the enthusiasm of unionist politicians for the use of wiretap evidence, the Chilcot report identified a number of "risks" relating to public inquiries, non-jury courts and greater disclosure requirements powers in recommending "no change to the current legal regime for intercept in Northern Ireland".
In a Commons statement Mr Brown announced that Sir John will now head a new cross-party group to examine the detailed arrangements necessary to implement the proposed change. Mr Cameron insisted the implementation body should not become "a talking shop for further delay".
However, Mr Brown said he would be "failing in his duty" if he did not warn the House there were "very big hurdles to be overcome". While there were examples to be drawn upon from around the world, the prime minister said the position in the UK was "distinctive".
Mr Brown's acknowledgement of Britain's "listening" capacity came amid continuing fallout from the alleged bugging of Labour MP Sadiq Khan's prison visits to a constituent fighting extradition to the US on terror charges.
DUP MP the Rev William McCrea is set to take up the prime minister's offer of a meeting after he told Mr Brown he believed his telephones and offices had been bugged in the past and asked for assurance that it would not happen in the future.