LAUSR

ABSTRACT This research note introduces the December 1981 report of the Security Commission. This report was never released with the main conclusions forming the basis of a statement by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, published in May 1982. But the 1981 report is significant for a number of reasons. It was the first major review of government security since the Radcliffe Report of 1961, resulting in a number of recommendations that changed government vetting for the rest of the 1980s. The report also recommended the avowal of Britain’s foreign intelligence agency – a recommendation that proved especially controversial.