Whitehall security leaks 'may continue'

A review of the police investigation into Home Office leaks has concluded there may be other Whitehall officials releasing sensitive information.

Thursday's report from the Commons home affairs committee also criticised senior officials at the Cabinet Office and Home Office for exaggerating the damage done to national security by the leaks.

The MPs suggested that a less sensationalist description of the problem may not have led police to launch a criminal inquiry which saw the arrest of shadow immigration minister Damian Green.

Sir David Normington, permanent secretary at the Home Office, had told the committee that he and ministers had become concerned by a series of unauthorised leaks of sensitive Home Office information over a period of two years.

After Whitehall discussions, the Cabinet Office director of security and intelligence wrote to the Metropolitan Police asking for an investigation into leaks "probably originating in the Home Office".

The letter to the police said: "We are in no doubt that there has been considerable damage to national security already as a result of some of these leaks and we are concerned that the potential for future damage is significant."

Sir David told the MPs that "at least one" of the 20 or so leaks had raised issues of national security, though most had not.

The investigation led to the arrest for questioning of both civil servant Christopher Galley and, more controversially, Tory frontbencher Green.

Galley has admitted to disclosing some information, but the MPs warned that he "may not have been responsible for all the 20-plus leaks identified by Sir David".

"This, together with the fact that there has been no indication so far that Mr Galley is linked to the 'other' national security-related leaks that have caused such concern to the Cabinet Office over the last few years, leaves the possibility (to put it no higher) that there are other officials within government leaking more sensitive information," said the report.

"We are unable to judge whether the controversy over the investigation into Mr Galley and Mr Green makes it less likely that those who have disclosed information damaging to national security will ever be discovered."

The committee also noted that leaks are "corrosive" and cannot be condoned, but said that frustration in the Home Office and Cabinet Office may have led officials to give an exaggerated impression of the damage done by them.

In a rebuke over the content of the letter to the Met, the MPs said it was "unhelpful to give the police the impression that the Home Office leaker(s) had already caused considerable damage to national security".

The committee also recommended that the Cabinet Office review its guidance on leak inquiries so the police are called in only when there is clear evidence that a criminal offence under the Official Secrets Act has been committed.