Terror trials need to be held in secret to stop “wannabe terrorists” finding out what the intelligence services know, MI6 chief Sir John Sawers said.
The row over secret justice plans in the Justice and Security Bill has raged for months after an intense battle and fears of a creeping secret court system.
Last month Kenneth Clarke, the Justice Secretary, ruled judges would decide whether civil cases involving national security should be heard behind closed doors.
The proposals are designed to allow the Government and secret services to fight compensation claims against them by having sensitive national security evidence heard in closed sessions.
The MI6 chief said that the secrecy was necessary to ensure that the UK’s enemies were not given access to classified information in legal actions.
He said, in comments reported in Civil Service World magazine: “We don’t want a situation where some wannabe terrorists can launch a lawsuit in the court and get all the information out of the intelligence services that they want to know.
We’ve got to have some way that we can defend ourselves in court without allowing that information to become public.”
Sir John also gave an insight into his job, telling an audience of senior civil servants at Civil Service Live, an event in Olympia, west London, that he had never expected to be dealing with international politics let alone running an intelligence agency.
He said: “Every day I have coming across my desk reports of groups around the world wanting to blow up our citizens; wanting to attack another country; wanting to work with others to go against our interests overseas and to attack our partners.”
A physics graduate, he joined the Foreign Office from university and then dropped out to work in bar because he was “too young” for a “serious job”. He then rejoined and spent time in MI6 in a number of key roles.