QB-2022-000174 - [2025] EWHC 1669 (KB)

Following the hearing on 12 May, the Attorney General has disclosed further documents into OPEN, which make clear that, in the course of a document review in August 2022, inspectors from the Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office (“IPCO”) identified a documentary record of the authorisation given to Officer 2 to depart from NCND in relation to X’s CHIS status, if he considered it necessary to do so. Following an investigation, IPCO produced a draft report in February 2023 containing a finding that there had been a departure from NCND in accordance with the authorisation. The Investigatory Powers Commissioner himself expressed the view that there had been a departure from NCND as late as December 2023. However, MI5 responded to IPCO denying any such departure. IPCO was persuaded to alter its conclusions and, in its final report in March 2024, accepted MI5’s assurance that no departure had taken place.