§ 1. Mr. WinnickTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the Director General of MI5 is expected to retire.
§ The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. Michael Howard)As has always been planned, the Director General of the Security Service is expected to retire in February 1996, when she will have completed four years in the post.
§ Mr. WinnickAre there any grounds for extending her employment in that position? Does the director general of MI5 now accept that when she was in a responsible position in the organisation, but not yet director general, the decision taken under her supervision to target my hon. Friend the Member for Peckham (Ms Harman) and Patricia Hewitt was wholly unjustified? As I understand it, the Government no longer want to justify it.
§ Mr. HowardI have answered the first part of the hon. Gentleman's question. As to the second part, there is absolutely no substance whatever in his allegation.
§ Mr. FabricantDoes my right hon. and learned Friend agree that now is not the time to be discussing the retirement of the head of MI5? Will he accept the congratulations of this House on the vigilant work that she and her department have done, with the exposure of an individual who was asked to leave the United Kingdom in the past week and who is a citizen of the Russian Federation?
§ Mr. HowardWe have a great deal for which every citizen of this country should be grateful in respect of the work of the Security Service.