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Child spies used only when very necessary, says Downing Street David Davis brands use of child spies ‘morally repugnant’
(about 1 hour later)
Downing Street has defended the use of child spies by British police and intelligence agencies in operations against terrorists, gangs and drug dealers, saying this happened very rarely and only when it was considered vital to do so. David Davis, the Tory former cabinet minister, has branded recruitment of child spies “morally repugnant”, as he led politicians and human rights groups in condemnation of police and intelligence agencies’ use of the tactic.
The comments by Theresa May’s spokeswoman came after a House of Lords committee revealed the practice and also raised the alarm that the government planned to give law enforcement bodies more freedom over the use of children. The recruitment of children as so-called covert human intelligence sources (CHIS) emerged this week after a House of Lords committee raised the alarm over proposals to loosen restrictions surrounding it.
Some of the child spies are under 16, the committee said, adding that it was worried about proposals to extend from one month to four the period of time between each occasion child spies go through a reregistration process. The secondary legislation committee reported that Ben Wallace, the home office security minister, had informed it there was “increasing scope” for children to be used to counter crimes such as terrorism, gang violence, drug dealing and child sexual exploitation.
Asked about the committee’s concerns, May’s spokeswoman said: “Juvenile covert human intelligence sources are used very rarely, and they’re only used when it is very necessary and proportionate, for example helping to prevent gang violence, drug dealing and the ‘county lines’ phenomenon. The use is governed by a very strict legal framework.” But the government faced a growing outcry on Friday over the use of child spies, with Davis, who resigned from his cabinet post less than a fortnight ago, warning that the key to such operations must be the winning of the hearts and minds of people. “That means winning and holding the moral high ground,” he said. “Morally repugnant tactics are a fast route to failure.”
The secondary legislation scrutiny committee, which is chaired by Lord Trefgarne, a former minister in the Thatcher government, raised the matter in a report. Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, said ministers must end the practice immediately and explain why it had been allowed to continue for so long.
“We are concerned that enabling a young person to participate in covert activity associated with serious crime for an extended period of time may increase the risks to their mental and physical welfare,” it said. “Our children should be protected, not intentionally put in precarious situations involving serious and violent crime,” she said. “It beggars belief that the Home Office, with responsibility for safeguarding and vulnerability, has the gall to ask members for even more time to expose children to gang culture and crime.
Home Office correspondence with the committee, published in the report, suggests children are not only used to furnish the police with information, but are also assigned to collect information on behalf of agencies. “There appear to be no guarantees from the government that safeguarding measures are in place, no indication of parental authorisation, and no detail on whether these ‘child spies’ are given any support once they have finished with them.”
The intention behind the change was to remove the obligation for an agency to apply to renew their authorisation “within a very short time” in circumstances including where “the juvenile has not been able to complete the tasking within the initial one-month period”. The government has advanced secondary legislation to extend the period that agencies could use child spies from one month to four months before needing reauthorisation. It now faces a challenge to the amendment and the practice itself.
The Home Office added: “This pressure to obtain results could be unhelpful to the juvenile CHIS [covert human intelligence sources] and also to the law enforcement agency … In some circumstances this requirement can also act as a deterrent with law enforcement avoiding the use of juvenile CHIS[.]” Lord Simon Haskel, a Labour peer who sits on the secondary legislation committee, said he and colleagues were considering referring the orders to parliament’s joint committee on human rights after the government refused to do so itself.
Regarding safeguards, the department proposes that authorisation be reviewed monthly by a senior official to ensure the welfare and safety of the child, and to ensure the deployment remains “necessary and proportionate”. “I’ve spoken to the clerk [of the committee] and that seems what we are going to do,” he said. A decision will be taken at the next committee meeting, on Tuesday.
Ben Wallace, the Home Office minister who corresponded with the committee over the changes, suggested that juvenile CHIS may have “unique access to information”, particularly in the case of gangs. Haskel said he and colleagues were not satisfied with the Home Office’s explanations for wanting to extend the powers, nor with the safeguards it claimed were in place for young people. “The whole tone of the thing is that it’s for the convenience of the authorities, it’s not for the convenience of the young person,” he said.
“For example, it can be difficult to gather evidence on gangs without penetrating their membership through the use of juvenile CHIS. As well as provide intelligence dividend in relation to a specific gang, juvenile CHIS can give investigators a broader insight into, for example, how young people in gangs are communicating with each other,” he wrote. Despite the outcry, Downing Street defended the use of children in spying operations. Asked about the committee’s concerns, Theresa May’s spokeswoman said: “Juvenile covert human intelligence sources are used very rarely and they’re only used when it is very necessary and proportionate, for example helping to prevent gang violence, drug dealing and the ‘county lines’ phenomenon. The use is governed by a very strict legal framework.”
Neil Woods, a former undercover police officer who investigated drug gangs around the country, said he was aware of children being used as CHISs in the past, but that it was rare. He said the change seemed at first glance to be an attempt to deal with “county lines” drug dealing. But human rights groups condemned the practice. Allan Hogarth, Amnesty International UK’s head of policy and government affairs, said it was “shocking and unacceptable” to expose children to the dangers associated with undercover operations.
“It sounds like infiltration to me, direction and infiltration,” he said. “It’s basically a kid that has been caught first time, and instead of rescuing them they are sending them back in.” “Instead of seeking to extend the length of time that law-enforcement agencies can potentially use children like this, the government should go back to first principles and seriously consider whether children are being endangered. If so, these operations should be stopped immediately,” he said.
He warned that authorising such activities would increase the risks faced by all children involved in the drug trade, who are already seen as expendable by ringleaders. Corey Stoughton, the advocacy director at the human rights group Liberty, said: “This practice is deeply troubling. Vulnerable children are just that – they should be protected, not co-opted by the government into potentially dangerous activities.”
The Green party peer Jenny Jones raised the issue at the Lords grand committee on Wednesday night, saying she was shocked to learn that authorities could use children as spies at all. She expressed concern that children may be recruited as spies on the basis of the controversial Scotland Yard database known as the ”gangs matrix”. “The government should not be using such a system as a basis for asking anyone – least of all children – to spy on their friends and neighbours.”
Rosalind Comyn, a legal and policy officer at the charity Rights Watch (UK), said: “Enlisting children as foot soldiers in the darkest corners of policing, and intentionally exposing them to terrorism, crime or sexual abuse rings – potentially without parental consent – runs directly counter to the government’s human rights obligations, which demand the interests of children be placed at the heart of decisions which affect them. Massoud Shadjareh, chair of the Islamic Human Rights Council, linked the practice to the government’s Prevent strategy – “a community-wide spying programme that sees mothers spying on their own children.”
The Home Office said: “Juvenile covert human intelligence sources are used very rarely and only ever when it is necessary and proportionate and when there is no other less intrusive way to get the information needed to convict criminals or terrorist suspects.” “While it is shocking to even consider the abuse of children in this manner, it is not far removed from the spirit of Prevent and the ever-increasing criminalisation of innocent communities in the name of security,” Shadjareh said.
“What only remains is the question of when we will wake from this nightmare and realise that we are destroying the safety and sanity of our society as a whole.”
UK security and counter-terrorismUK security and counter-terrorism
Undercover police and policingUndercover police and policing
EspionageEspionage
PolicePolice
Counter-terrorism policyCounter-terrorism policy
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