New Possibilities: Legislative Oversight of Intelligence beyond Westminster

Abstract

This chapter looks beyond the Westminster Parliament at new potential sources of legislative scrutiny of intelligence, and in particular the European Parliament (EP). It does this by examining the extent of any emerging interest in the EP in the work of national intelligence and security agencies and their oversight. There has also been the development of a number of agencies within the EU, which raises further and different questions about scrutiny and oversight, including the role, or lack of one, for the EP in relation to such activities, and how this relates to individual member states and their political oversight of intelligence. The chapter will consider these issues and examine the activities undertaken by the European Parliament in relation to intelligence and security, perhaps most obviously the work of the temporary committee on Extraordinary Rendition in 2005 and 2006, but also more broadly at other measures of interest such as questions and reports.