In a quiet but consequential shift, the man who oversees Britain's security service has said that the courts which once accepted MI5's word without question will now ask for proof. The change follows a BBC investigation into an informant known as Agent X, whose violence against his partner was shielded by the service, and whose case exposed false evidence given to three courts. It is a reminder that trust in powerful institutions is built slowly and lost quickly, and that the long work of restoring it now rests with MI5 and the judges who must test its word.
MI5 Must Now Prove Its Word to Courts, Says Investigatory Powers Commissioner Lord Leveson
Agent X, a neo-Nazi informant, coercively controlled and machete-attacked his partner Beth, and had previously abused another woman and threatened her child.
In a quiet but consequential shift, the man who oversees Britain's security service has said that the courts which once accepted MI5's word without question will now ask for proof. The change follows a BBC investigation into an informant known as Agent X, whose violence against his partner was shielded by the service, and whose case exposed false evidence given to three courts. It is a reminder that trust in powerful institutions is built slowly and lost quickly, and that the long work of restoring it now rests with MI5 and the judges who must test its word.
Lord Leveson, who oversees MI5 as the investigatory powers commissioner, says judges who once took the security service at its word will now want proof. Speaking at the first annual conference of his office, Ipco, he recalled that when he sat as a judge, anything MI5 told him was accepted. That is no longer the case, and he expects courts to be far more reluctant to rely on such statements without evidence.
His remarks follow a BBC investigation into Agent X, a neo-Nazi informant who coercively controlled his partner, Beth, and attacked her with a machete. He had previously abused another woman and threatened her child, yet MI5 protected him, helping him go abroad while he was under police investigation.
Ipco's inquiry found serious and systemic failures. A senior officer lied repeatedly about the agent's status, which MI5 had in fact disclosed to a BBC journalist in 2020, and that officer has since resigned. The false claim that the service had maintained its neither-confirm-nor-deny policy had left Beth at a serious disadvantage in her legal challenges. MI5 has apologised and accepted the findings in full.
The High Court declined contempt proceedings and suggested the police might take up the case, and Lord Leveson said he is ready to help if asked. He credited the BBC's reporting with prompting new policies on agents and domestic abuse, and noted that intelligence chiefs worldwide have contacted him, fearing similar failures. Whether the police act, and how the courts now treat MI5's evidence, will show how far the service has come.
Lord Leveson, who oversees MI5 as the investigatory powers commissioner, says that judges who once took the security service at its word will now want proof. A former Court of Appeal justice, he told the BBC that when he sat as a judge, if the security service said something to him, he would accept it. In future, he said, courts will be far more reluctant to accept such statements without evidential proof.
He was speaking at the first annual conference of the Investigatory Powers Commissioner's Office, known as Ipco. It was his first interview about the case. His remarks follow a BBC News investigation that exposed how MI5 gave false evidence to three courts in connection with an informant known as Agent X.
The investigation revealed that Agent X, a neo-Nazi working as an informant, used his state role as a tool of abuse. He coercively controlled his partner, who is known by the alias Beth, and attacked her with a machete. He had previously abused another woman and threatened to kill her child. MI5 nonetheless protected him. It helped him go abroad to continue intelligence work while he was under police investigation, and it even removed his possessions from a police station.
After the BBC's story, a secret Ipco inquiry concluded that MI5 knew the agent was a misogynist who was obsessed with violence. The then Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, also asked Ipco to examine how MI5 came to give false evidence to three courts, and Ipco's report was published earlier this year. It found that one senior MI5 officer had lied repeatedly, and that another had misled his own colleagues and lied about what he had been told. It criticised other senior figures and identified serious and systemic failures in MI5's conduct throughout the case. The officer found to have lied repeatedly has since resigned from MI5.
The false evidence concerned MI5's core secrecy policy, neither confirm nor deny, or NCND, which governs whether the service will acknowledge that someone is an agent. In 2022 the government took the BBC to court in an unsuccessful attempt to block the Agent X investigation, though it won legal anonymity for him. Beth then sued MI5 at the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, and in 2024 she sought a review of a ruling at the High Court. MI5 claimed it had maintained NCND, so the courts allowed it to withhold information from Beth and everyone else, leaving her at a serious disadvantage.
That claim was untrue. MI5 had in fact disclosed the man's agent status in phone calls to the BBC journalist, in 2020, as it tried to persuade the journalist not to investigate him. A senior MI5 officer falsely said the man was neither an abusive misogynist nor a real extremist, and even wanted the journalist to meet the agent. In doing so he repeatedly departed from NCND.
MI5 has apologised and said it accepted the report's findings without reservation. The High Court declined to begin contempt of court proceedings and said the police might be better placed to take on the case. Lord Leveson said he stands ready to assist the police if asked. He said MI5 has a great distance to go with the courts in the future.
He also credited the BBC's work with changing how agents, formally covert human intelligence sources, are handled. There is now a policy covering agents and domestic violence and coercive control. He said concern is now focused not only on what an agent does, but on the agent's impact on other aspects of his or her life, and that everybody learns from disasters. Ipco's chief executive, Richard Thompson, now attends meetings of an internal MI5 board set up to oversee changes arising from the case, including changes in culture. MI5 must also change how it prepares and gives evidence.
Lord Leveson said intelligence chiefs from around the world have contacted him, worried that something similar could happen in their own organisations. He said the case had done a great service to everybody. What to watch next is whether the police take up the case the High Court pointed them toward, and how courts treat MI5's evidence.
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