Ministers cannot eliminate torture

Campaigners have called for a judicial inquiry after two senior Cabinet ministers said in a jointly written article for the Sunday Telegraph that it is impossible to guarantee that information used by the security services has not been obtained through torture abroad.

Foreign secretary David Miliband and home secretary Alan Johnson used the article to refute claims that the British Government colludes in the use of torture. "Our position is clear," they wrote. "The UK firmly opposes torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.

"When detainees are held by our police or Armed Forces we can be sure how they are treated. By definition, we cannot have that same level of assurance when they are held by foreign governments, whose obligations may differ from our own."

Their article was written in the wake of last week's statement from an all-party committee of MPs and peers that the Government had not properly investigated allegations of British complicity in torture. The committee called for an independent inquiry.

Tom Porteous, a director of Human Rights Watch, said following the publication of Miliband and Johnson's article: "There are specific, detailed and consistent allegations... and they need to be answered. Government ministers are here issuing blanket denials but not addressing the specific allegations and so there really is a need for a judicial inquiry."

Meanwhile, the BBC reported today that the head of MI6, Sir John Scarlett, had said there was no complicity in torture by the British security services. Speaking in the course of a three-part radio programme MI6: A Century in Shadows, Sir John said: "Our officers are as committed to the values and the human rights values of liberal democracy as anybody else." ·