THE new chief of MI6, John Scarlett, has announced the biggest shake-up of the intelligence service since the cold war amid the resignations of some of its most senior spy masters.

Scarlett’s changes are designed to prevent a repeat of the “45-minute” debacle when MI6 was forced to withdraw intelligence in the government’s Iraq dossier after admitting that it was unreliable and based on just one source. The shake-up is a tacit admission that MI6’s credibility has been seriously dented.

Critics point out, however, that it was Scarlett himself, when chairman of the joint intelligence committee, who encouraged the heads of Britain’s intelligence services to divulge material for the government’s discredited September 2002 dossier.

MI6’s assessment that Saddam Hussein could launch missiles against British bases in Cyprus within 45 minutes of an order being given and that he had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, was discredited after the invasion of Iraq. After he took over as chief, Scarlett withdrew the 45-minute claim, admitting the source was unreliable.

The changes are designed to ensure that such material is never again presented to ministers for publication. In his reforms, Scarlett will reinstate procedures used in the cold war when intelligence was vetted by senior MI6 officers before being passed on to the rest of the intelligence community and to ministers.

The changes will isolate the production of intelligence from its distribution. Under Sir Richard Dearlove and Sir David Spedding, Scarlett’s predecessors, the gathering and checking of intelligence was carried out by integrated teams.

Scarlett has also reshuffled the board of senior spies that controls MI6 and has appointed new faces. Three senior, highly respected officers with job offers in the private sector have resigned.

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