MP NORMAN: LET ME SEE MY MI5 FILE

LEWES MP Norman Baker, number two in the LibDem Home Office team, is to challenge the intelligence service MI5 at a Data Protection Tribunal next week.

Mr Baker has been named as the new deputy to LibDem Home Office spokesman Simon Hughes.

And he said this week that the appointment was an ideal platform on which to ask MI5 to give him access to a file which he believes the organisation holds on him.

He believes the file includes details of his lawful environmental campaign activities in the 1980s.

Mr Baker made a request for the papers to 'test the waters' under the new Data Protection Act, and was refused access to them.

He will challenge the decision with the help of the civil liberties group Liberty.

If successful, his case could set a legal precedent with the Government's other intelligence agencies, MI6 and GCHQ, almost certainly being forced to open up their files.

But Mr Baker stressed this week that he was not seeking to have all security files opened up.

Each application should be assessed on its own merits, he added.

'This is about establishing the principle that the security services are subject to data protection legislation,' he continued.

'It is something I care about and being part of our Home Office team will be very useful.'

His aim is to argue that the refusal to show people what is written about them breaches data protection and human rights laws.

The Act, which came into force last year, requires greater openness by organisations that hold files on people.

Published: 22.6.01 Sussex Newspapers Ltd