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<p>The account of the treatment of some detainees by the Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) as reported by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is troubling. As
the Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron) has stated,
after 9/11 there were things that happened that were wrong, and we should be clear
about the fact that they were wrong.</p><p>In July 2010 the Prime Minister asked Sir
Peter Gibson to lead an Inquiry into whether Britain was implicated in the improper
treatment, or rendition, of detainees held by other countries in the aftermath of
the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001. In December 2013, the Detainee Inquiry
published a report on its preparatory work setting out a series of questions which
the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament is now considering. The Committee
will report to Parliament and the public on completion of its work.</p><p>This Government
also took the important step of publishing the Consolidated Guidance in 2010 on the
obligations of our agencies and the Ministry of Defence in relation to detainees held
overseas. The Intelligence Services Commissioner is tasked to monitor compliance with
this – a role we have recently put on a statutory footing.</p><p>The UK Government
stands firmly against torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment or punishment.
We do not condone it, nor do we ask others to do it on our behalf.</p><p>The US Government
has assured us that there have been no cases of rendition through the UK, our Overseas
Territories including Diego Garcia (British Indian Ocean Territory), or the Crown
Dependencies since 11 September 2001, apart from the two cases in 2002, about which
the then Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, the then Member
for South Shields, Mr Milliband informed the House in 2008.</p>
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