UNITED KINGDOM
The head of the UK Foreign Office, Sir Simon McDonald (pictured) has promised a “large-scale, Government-wide inquiry” into the leaking of diplomatic memos by the country’s Ambassador to the United States.
Appearing before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, Sir Simon said the Cabinet Office would lead the cross-Government probe.
The confidential memos from the Ambassador, Sir Kim Darroch, in which he called the US Administration “uniquely dysfunctional” and “diplomatically clumsy and inept”, were leaked to the press.
After an explosive reaction from US President, Donald Trump, Sir Kim announced his resignation, saying it was impossible for him to continue to do his job.
Sir Simon said that although the emails and details originated from the Foreign Office, they were distributed across Whitehall, so the readership was very wide.
Depending on its findings, Sir Simon confirmed the investigation could lead to a police inquiry.
A police spokesperson later said they were indeed involved.
Sir Simon told the Committee the Foreign Office had yet to determine the extent of the damage the leak had caused but added that “there is clearly significant damage which we must assess over the days and I suspect weeks and months to come”.
The Permanent Secretary said that although “the human factor is usually the most important” when it comes to preventing leaks, he had reminded Foreign Office diplomats around the world that “there’s more than one means to communicate especially sensitive material”.
However, he rebuffed MPs’ suggestion that Ambassadors should limit their communications to reduce the risk of them being intercepted.
“I believe that Ambassadors need to be able to communicate instantly and honestly with head office, so how that is arranged technically and how that is handled is what we need to look at,” Sir Simon said.
“I do not think we should ask Ambassadors not to communicate essential information.”
He said PS employees had access to secure communications systems, which were in the process of being upgraded.
London, 10 July 2019
