The UK's spy agencies effectively turned a blind eye to the mistreatment of detainees by the United States in the wake of 9/11, a major inquiry has found.

The intelligence and security committee (ISC), a high-level group of MPs and peers, said on Thursday they had found no evidence that UK officers directly carried out any physical mistreatment of detainees.

But they said it was "beyond doubt" that UK agency chiefs knew the US was engaged in a "pattern of mistreatment" of detainees – and did nothing about it in case they upset their US allies and "lost access to intelligence".

The committee, led by former attorney general Dominic Grieve, found 232 cases where UK personnel had continued to supply questions or intelligence to allies even "after they knew or suspected mistreatment".

In 198 cases, UK personnel received intelligence from allies that had been obtained from detainees "who they knew had been mistreated" or should have suspected had been mistreated.

In 2002 alone, there were at least 38 cases where officers had witnessed or heard about mistreatment. The ISC was not convinced by the UK intelligence agencies' claim that these were "isolated incidents".

Grieve said: "They may have been isolated incidents to the individual officer witnessing them, but they cannot be considered ‘isolated’ to those in head office.

"It is difficult to comprehend how those at the top of the office did not recognise the pattern of mistreatment by the US. That the US, and others, were mistreating detainees is beyond doubt, as is the fact that the agencies and defence intelligence were aware of this at an early point."



The ISC released two reports on detainee mistreatment and rendition following a three-year inquiry in which they took 50 hours of oral evidence and examined 40,000 original documents.