British intelligence officers knew about - and on occasions witnessed - the mistreatment of suspected terrorists after 9/11, but did too little to stop or prevent it, a report has found.

A long overdue report on detainee mistreatment and rendition, from parliament's intelligence and security committee (ISC), concludes those at the top of MI6, MI5 and Defence Intelligence knew about "the pattern of mistreatment by the US" and "tolerated" it.

Image: MI6 and other security services 'knew about the pattern of mistreatment'

According to the report, between the 2001 terror attacks in the US and 2010, there were:

:: 13 incidents where UK personnel witnessed detainee mistreatment first hand.

:: 25 incidents when detainees told UK personnel they'd been mistreated.


:: 128 occasions when a foreign intelligence agency told the UK about mistreatment but nothing was done.

:: 232 occasions when UK intelligence officers supplied questions for interviews despite knowing or suspecting mistreatment.

​​​​​​​:: 198 times when UK intelligence agencies received information from a third party, gathered through torture.

The committee said: "The 27 conclusions contained in the body of this report outline some serious concerns: in our view the UK tolerated actions, and took others, that we regard as inexcusable."

However, the report concluded there was not any evidence to indicate "UK agency officers or defence intelligence personnel directly carried out physical mistreatment of detainees".

Image: UK officers participated in detainee interviews at Guantanamo Bay

From 2002, UK intelligence officers from MI6, MI5 and the Ministry of Defence (MOD), participated in an estimated 2-3,000 interviews of detainees, held by the US at locations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.

On rendition, the practice of secretly flying a detainee to another country without trial, the report said there was no "smoking gun" to indicate that the agencies "deliberately overlooked reports of mistreatment and rendition by the US as a matter of institutional policy".

But, "there was no understanding in HMG [Her Majesty's Government] of rendition and no clear policy - or even recognition of the need for one", it added.

The report stated: "We have found three individual cases where SIS [Secret Intelligence Service or MI6] or MI5 made, or offered to make, a financial contribution to others to conduct a rendition operation.

"Given the countries concerned, these can be described as 'extraordinary renditions' due to the real risk of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatments.

"There is no evidence that any US rendition flight transited the UK with a detainee onboard.

"Two detainees are now known to have transferred through Diego Garcia: we have seen nothing to indicate that detainees have ever been held on Diego Garcia [a military facility in the Indian Ocean], although the records are woefully inadequate."

Image: The report focused on events after the 9/11 terror attacks

The committee took 50 hours of oral evidence over the past three years, reviewed 4,000 documents and devoted 30,000 staff hours to the inquiry.

It took evidence from former detainees and three former intelligence officers, but criticised the government for denying them access to some witnesses.

The chairman of the ISC, former attorney general and Tory MP Dominic Grieve, said it was easy to criticise with hindsight.

"We wish to be absolutely clear that we do not seek to blame individual officers acting under immense pressure," he said.

"Our findings must be viewed in the context in which events took place.

"The pace of work after 9/11, both in Afghanistan and London, was frenetic: we do not underestimate the pressure that the agencies experienced whilst dealing with the imperative to protect the UK and prevent another attack on the scale of 9/11."

Image: ISC chair Dominic Grieve said it was easy to criticise with hindsight

In a second report that examines the current situation, also released on Thursday, the ISC concludes that the agencies have implemented changes to prevent it happening again.

"Whilst there is room for improvement, very few countries have attempted to set out their approach to these matters, and let themselves be held accountable in this manner," it said.

"It is to the agencies' and the MOD's credit that they have embedded these procedures."

Following the publication of the reports, a Westminster security official told Sky News: "We have had to learn some tough lessons.

"The ISC's reports are frank and clear. We were simply not prepared for the work we became involved in following 9/11.

"There were deficiencies in capability and understanding; and therefore in the guidance and training that we gave to staff.

"Today, we do things differently. We have learned the lessons of those difficult post-9/11 years and structures have matured, both in SIS and across government."

Prime Minister Theresa May said: "The Government does not participate in, solicit, encourage or condone the use of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment for any purpose.

"The ISC has noted, in the context of its historical report, a number of cases where intelligence and Armed Forces personnel are alleged to have threatened individuals in foreign detention.

"Such alleged behaviour is clearly unacceptable and the ISC's Current Issues report recognises that improvements have been made to operational processes, fostering a greater awareness of risks and establishing enhanced oversight in relation to detainee issues."

Mrs May added the government will give "further consideration" to the ISC's conclusions and will be inviting the Investigatory Powers Commissioner, Sir Adrian Fulford, to make proposals about how guidance to intelligence services on detention and interviewing detainees could be improved.

We were simply not prepared for the work we became involved in following 9/11.

Labour's shadow attorney general Baroness Chakrabarti said: "It is now clear from the published reports that the ISC was denied access to individuals, severely limiting its ability to give as comprehensive a resolution to this scandal as it would have liked.

"Its criticisms of ongoing inadequacies on guidance relating to torture and rendition also makes a judge-led inquiry - that the government is so keen to avoid - inescapable."

Corey Stoughton, advocacy director at civil liberties campaign group Liberty, said: "As the committee itself bemoans, the government crippled this inquiry from the start, constraining its scope, withholding critical information, and creating obstacles to a full and complete reckoning on the UK's complicity in torture.

"But even with such limited access to the people and materials they needed to get to the truth, the committee has delivered two stinging reports into what it terms 'inexcusable' conduct.

"Their pages make for distressing reading, but we still haven't got to the bottom of the UK's involvement in the unforgivable mistreatment of people around the world.

"Ministers must finally instigate the promised independent judge-led inquiry to delve deeper into our country's involvement in torture and rendition."

Amnesty International also joined calls for a full judge-led inquiry.

Prior to the publication of the ISC reports, Mr Grieve dismissed claims there were any significant last-minute changes at the request of US officials.