Intelligence Services Act 1994

The UK Act that placed the work of SIS (MI6) and GCHQ on a statutory footing and set up a parliamentary intelligence oversight committee (the ISC).

Section 1 provides that SIS continues to exist under the authority of the Secretary of State and obtains and provides information relating to the actions or intentions of persons outside the British Islands – in the interests of national security, of the economic well-being of the United Kingdom, or in support of the prevention or detection of serious crime.¹

Section 3 gives GCHQ the task of monitoring and interfering with signals and emissions and obtaining information from them, and of advising, among others, the armed forces and the government on languages and cryptography.²

The creation of the ISC by this Act is stated in the committee’s annual report.³