MONITORING the work of spy agencies MI5, MI6 and GCHQ should not be the sole preserve of the Commons intelligence and security committee (ISC), MPs said yesterday.

The Commons home affairs committee also recommended that members of the nine-person ISC should be elected in the same manner as select committees.

It further proposed that the ISC chair should always be a member of the Commons, subject to election by Parliament and always be a member of the largest opposition party.

The report comes after the current ISC chair Sir Malcolm Rifkind defended his committee’s role and powers in a speech to Oxford University’s Wadham College.

Home affairs committee chairman Keith Vaz MP said: “The current system of oversight is designed to scrutinise the work of George Smiley, not the 21st century reality of the security and intelligence services.

“The agencies are at the cutting edge of sophistication and are owed an equally refined system of democratic scrutiny.

“It is an embarrassing indictment of our system that some in the media felt compelled to publish leaked information to ensure that matters were heard in Parliament.”

Commenting on the report, ISC chair Sir Malcolm Rifkind said: “For several years, Mr Vaz has been trying to expand the powers of his committee so that they can take evidence from MI5, MI6, and GCHQ. That is what this bit of his report is all about.”

But legal action charity Reprieve executive director Clare Algar said: “The home affairs committee is right to describe oversight of the intelligence services as ‘weak’.

“Scandal after scandal has escaped the attention of the intelligence and security committee, which consistently fails to provide proper accountability.”