Home Office played up security risk of leaks before Green's arrest

Senior government officials exaggerated the threat to national security posed by a series of Home Office leaks that led to the arrest of Damian Green, a parliamentary inquiry has found.

The arrest of Mr Green, the shadow Immigration minister, caused anger in Westminster after police raided his offices without a warrant. He was arrested in November with a junior Home Office civil servant, Christopher Galley.

A report by the Commons Home Affairs Committee, published today, has found a "clear mismatch" between the information given to Scotland Yard about the threat posed by the leaks and the description of the documents that senior officials in the Home Office gave. It raises questions over whether police would have conducted the raid if the "hyperbolic" account of the threat had not been issued.

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The committee concluded that the involvement of the police had more to do with frustration among government officials that the leaks persisted despite repeated attempts to stop them.

Its criticisms centre on a letter sent to the Met's Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Operations, Bob Quick, asking for a police investigation into the leaks. In the letter, Chris Wright, the director of security and intelligence at the Cabinet Office, said: "We are in no doubt that there has been considerable damage to national security already as a result of some of these leaks and we are concerned that the potential for future damage is significant."

But when questioned by the committee, Sir David Normington, the Home Office permanent secretary, said that only one of about 20 leaked documents raised issues of national security and that the document had not originated from the Home Office.

He added: "This particular leak was not the significant factor in seeking the Cabinet Office [and police's] help."

The report concluded: "We are concerned that growing frustration in both the Home Office and the Cabinet Office may have led officials to give an exaggerated impression of the damage done by the leaks that could reasonably be presumed to have emanated from the Home Office.

"We think it was unhelpful to give the police the impression that the Home Office leaker(s) had already caused considerable damage to national security."

The Tories said the findings raised questions for ministers to answer, including whether the letter from the Cabinet Office was approved by the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith. The party wants the matter referred to the Committee on Standards and Privileges.

Chris Huhne, the home affairs spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, said the behaviour of the Government and the involvement of the police had been unacceptable. "Officials seemed to have complained about national security when all they wanted to hide was their embarrassment," he said.

The committee has called on the Cabinet Office to tighten its handling of leak inquiries to ensure the police are only involved when it has "clear evidence" that a criminal offence has been committed by the leaking of state secrets.

Keith Vaz, its Labour chairman, said the case had raised "a series of serious questions about the way such extraordinary and politically sensitive cases are dealt with".

"There was a slight over-egging of the pudding which meant the police were called in. It's the use of the words 'national security' that got everyone excited," he said. He also criticised the way the Met had handled the case.