Justice and Security Act 2013
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| Long title | A Bill to provide for oversight of the Security Service, the Secret Intelligence Service, GCHQ and other activities relating to intelligence or security matters; to provide for closed material procedure in relation to certain civil proceedings; to prevent the making of certain court orders for the disclosure of sensitive information; and for connected purposes. |
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| Citation | 2013 c. 18 |
| Introduced by | Rt Hon Kenneth Clarke Rt Hon Lord Wallace of Tankerness |
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The Justice and Security Act 2013 (c. 18) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, firstly to provide for oversight of the Security Service (MI5), the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) on intelligence or security matters. Secondly the bill proposes to provide for the establishment of closed material procedures (CMP) in relation to certain civil proceedings. Thirdly to prevent the making of court orders for the disclosure of what the government deems to be sensitive information. The Bill was published as a Justice and Security Green Paper on 3 October 2011. It was presented to Parliament on 28 November 2012. It completed its House of Lords Committee stage on 7 February 2013. It had its second reading debate on 18 December 2012, and its third reading and report stage on 7 March 2013.
On 3 October 2011, Kenneth Clarke the then Justice Secretary at the Ministry of Justice representing the Government, published a Justice and Security Green Paper proposing to make secret procedures available in all types of civil proceedings. The proposal is that, even when the Government is itself involved in proceedings, it should have the power to decide for itself whether to invoke the secret procedure, with only a very limited review by the court. Most secret procedures to date, have been confined to a few specialist types of case, usually immigration, cases involving issues of national security, and control order proceedings involving terror suspects. If the new Green Paper proposals become law, this power will be used not only in cases involving national security, but also in any other case where the Government decides that the disclosure of sensitive material is likely to result in ‘harm to the public interest’. The controversial Green Paper is now the Justice and Security Bill 2012-13, currently being sponsored through parliament and the Lords by the Rt Hon Lord Wallace of Tankerness, who is also the Government sponsor of the Succession to the Crown Bill 2012.
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