Britain needs to draw a line under the debate about mass surveillance by the intelligence agencies sooner rather than later to stop them getting distracted from their work, Philip Hammond, the foreign secretary, said on Tuesday.

The senior Conservative said his party would legislate early in the next parliament to give the security services extra powers and address legitimate public concerns about their oversight.

But he said the debate about privacy sparked by the American whistleblower Edward Snowden, whose revelations about mass surveillance by the agencies were published by the Guardian and others, “cannot be allowed to run on forever”.

Speaking at the Royal United Service Institute (Rusi), Hammond said: “We need to have it, address the issues arising from it and move on sooner rather than later if the agencies are not to become distracted from their task.

“The prime minister, home secretary and I are determined we should draw a line under the debate by legislating early in the next parliament to give our agencies clearly and transparently the powers they need and to ensure our oversight regime keeps pace with technological change and addresses the reasonable concerns of our citizens.”

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Hammond gave the speech ahead of the publication of two reports on the issue – one by parliament’s intelligence and security committee and another by David Anderson, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation.

Hammond said the UK was “right to question the powers required by our agencies and particularly GCHQ to monitor private communications”.

“I am conscious in the wake of the Snowden allegations and in the light of upcoming parliamentary inquiries that we will need to address public concerns about the transparency of the regulatory framework and the powers contained within it,” he said.

Hammond said these reports would “no doubt make an important contribution” but he was clear the debate would have to be brought to a conclusion soon.

The foreign secretary also made the case for extra powers for the security services to stop terrorists communicating in dark spaces on the web, which David Cameron has already said he would like to see.

“From my position as foreign secretary, and with a full appreciation of the constraints and regulations within which (GCHQ) operates, I am quite clear that the ability to intercept bulk communications data, to subject that metadata to electronic analysis and seek to extract the tiny, tiny percentage of communications that may be of any direct security interest does not represent an enhancement of the agencies’ powers. Rather it represents an adaptation of those powers to the realities of the 21st century,” Hammond said.

In coalition, the Liberal Democrats blocked greater powers for the security services under the draft communications data bill, known by critics as the snooper’s charter, but the Conservatives have made it clear they would want to revive elements of that proposed legislation in the next parliament.

Hammond also gave a broader warning that Britain is facing more threats than it has done for decades, including a heightened risk from Russia requiring the recruitment of more Russian-speakers to the intelligence agencies.

“The sheer number and range of cases, old and new, amounts to the greatest challenge to our collective security for decades and places unprecedented demands on those charged with keeping us safe,” he said.

Asked if there could be a case for Britain to publicise some of the “very interesting financial” information about members of Vladimir Putin’s regime outside Russia, he replied: “There might be. When we talk about having further steps that we can take in increasing the pressure on Russia, one of the headings that we regularly review is strategic communication, how can we [send a] message to the Russian people ... about what’s really going on. And it’s a very interesting thought. I will certainly make sure that the strat-comms [strategic communications] people are thinking precisely about that.”

Hammond also said he was seeing more and more cases cross his desk in which he had to make decisions about sharing intelligence with agencies from other countries that do not uphold the same human rights standards as the UK.

“Not all of the countries with whom we might like to share information in the interest of national security adhere to the same high standards as the UK in how they treat suspects,” he said. “These are often finely balanced decisions and more and more of them are coming across my desk.”

There has also been a debate about the role of the intelligence services in monitoring Mohammed Emwazi, the suspected Islamic State killer.

While some have criticised the agencies for failing to stop him from travelling to join Isis, the human rights campaign group Cage suggested their pursuit of him amounted to persecution and had turned him against the west.

In remarks that appear to be aimed at Cage, Hammond said: “We are absolutely clear: the responsibility for acts of terror rests with those who commit them. But a huge burden of responsibility also lies with those who act as apologists for them.”

Later on Tuesday, MPs will debate new travel restrictions on people believed to be a “terrorism-related threat” and fines on airlines that breach requirements to “prevent certain individuals from travelling to or from the UK”.



