Show caption Ken Clarke said: ‘What are we trying to cover up of what was done in the time of the Blair government?’ Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images Rendition MPs press for new inquiry into UK role in rendition and torture Foreign Office minister says government will give decision on judicial inquiry within 60 days Ian Cobain Mon 2 Jul 2018 18.07 BST Share on Facebook

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The UK government will give “careful consideration” to calls for a renewed judge-led inquiry into the country’s involvement in human rights abuses after 9/11, the Foreign Office minister Alan Duncan told MPs on Monday.



He made the pledge after two reports published by parliament’s intelligence and security committee (ISC) laid bare the extent of British involvement in rendition and the torture of detainees.

The ISC found that the UK had planned, agreed or financed 31 rendition operations.

In addition there were 15 occasions when British intelligence officers consented to or witnessed torture, and 232 occasions on which the intelligence agencies supplied questions to be put to detainees who they knew or suspected were being mistreated.

The former home secretary Ken Clarke led calls for the establishment of a judicial inquiry, saying the ISC had been prevented from completing its work by taking evidence from intelligence officers “who had been on the ground at the time” of the abuses. “Why was that done? What are we trying to cover up of what was done in the time of the Blair government?”

The shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, backed this call. She said: “As detailed as this report is, it still doesn’t give us the full truth and we will not have the full truth until we have a full, independent judicial inquiry.”

An inquiry was needed, she added, “to ensure that never again is the UK involved in these illegal and barbaric acts”.

Andrew Mitchell, the former international development secretary, said the abuses detailed by the ISC had “done considerable damage to Britain’s international reputation as a firm upholder of international law and human rights”.

Duncan said it was right that as much information as possible about what had happened was put into the public domain. “We must ensure that we learn from past mistakes so they are never repeated.”

He said the government would give its decision on a judicial inquiry within 60 days.

The ISC investigation was launched after David Cameron, as prime minister, halted an inquiry headed by Sir Peter Gibson, a former appeal court judge. Cameron said that Gibson could not continue after police began investigating the role that MI6 played in the kidnap and rendition of a Libyan couple, Abdel Hakim Belhaj and Fatima Boudchar, in 2004.

The Gibson inquiry had been established after a series of disclosures in the Guardian and the courts about the UK’s involvement in human rights abuses.

At the end of the police investigation, the Crown Prosecution Service decided against bringing criminal charges.

In May, Theresa May issued a public apology to Belhaj and Boudchar.

Only on publication of the ISC’s reports was the extent of the UK’s involvement in human rights abuses exposed. In addition to the 31 rendition operations that were planned, agreed or financed by British intelligence, there were 22 operations in which MI6 or MI5 provided the intelligence that enabled operations, and 23 in which they failed to take action to prevent a rendition, including operations in which the victim was a British national or resident.