ABSTRACT
In democratic societies the activities of covert policing have been accepted with reluctance and there is continuous dispute about the accountability, authority and range of activities of those engaged in these activities. Changes in the activities of international criminals followed by changes in the law during the 1990s have resulted in covert methods being used in the fight against serious crime. At its inception in 1909 the first tasks of the Security Service were to identify and deal with German agents conducting espionage in the UK. The Intelligence Services Act 1994 makes statutory provision for the secret intelligence service often referred to in the press as MI6 and government communications headquarters in similar terms to those provided in the Security Service Act. The Special Branch was formed in the Metropolitan Police in 1883 to track down the Fenian dynamiters of the Irish Republican Brotherhood.
