The Official Secrets Act 1989

Abstract

By its long title this Act of Parliament replaces section 2 of the Official Secrets Act 1911 by provisions protecting more limited classes of official information. Let us remember that there are two strands to the larger story. One strand concerns government secrets and MI5 and section 2 of the Official Secrets Act 1911. The other strand concerns espionage and MI6 and section 1 of that Act. The two strands intertwine, happily or unhappily, when a spycatcher decides to talk about his activities. And through the stories, the political and judicial powers dance together and around each other, sometimes in the embrace of what in my youth was called the slow foxtrot, sometimes apart in the more frenzied activity of the disco. It is a most curious world of conspiracies and killings and yet also unreal and often unbelievable. It is a world of shadows on the backcloth of everyday life but shadows that from time to time acquire a frightening substance when women and men are shot in the street in daylight. After a number of leaks of official documents had shown that the existing law was often inadequate to support prosecutions, the Official Secrets Act 1889 was passed. No one could say that the next 100 years were without incident. Spies, traitors, the Great Game, the Endless Adventure never left the stage for a moment.' The Official Secrets Act 1889 was directed against Crown servants its first title was the Breach of Official Trust Bill and also covered espionage and treason. It was seldom used. Leaks continued but attempts in 1896 and 1908 to strengthen the Act were abandoned after public criticism. The fears about German spies from the early years of the century resulted in the Official Secrets Act 1911. Section 1 was directed primarily at espionage but was and is usable in other cases. Famously it was used against members of the Committee of 100 of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in 1964 when they demonstrated at a 'prohibited place', Wethersfield Airport occupied by the United States Air Force.2 In 1978 the former soldier and the