Written question asked by David Davis (Conservative) on Wednesday, 22 April 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 27 April 2009. It was answered by Lord Coaker (Labour) on Tuesday, 28 April 2009 on behalf of the Home Office.

National Security

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on how many occasions she and her predecessors have authorised warrants under section 7 of the Intelligence and Security Act 1994 since 1997.

Answer: [holding answer 27 April 2009]: The issuing of authorisations under section 7 of the Intelligence Services Act 1994 is scrutinized by the Intelligence Services Commissioner. In the most recent report of the Intelligence Services Commissioner 2007 (HC 948) he gave an account of his scrutiny function and noted that:""Consistent with the practice since annual reporting by the respective statutory Commissioners began, I do not propose to disclose publicly the numbers of warrants or authorisations issued to the security and intelligence services. That is because it would assist those unfriendly to the UK were they able to know the extent of the work of the Security Service, SIS and GCHQ in fulfilling their functions. The figures are, however, of interest and have been included in the confidential annex to the report.""

Secondary information