Security chief to appear on TV

STELLA RIMINGTON, the head of the Security Service, is to make an unprecedented appearance on nationwide television when she gives the annual Richard Dimbleby Lecture later this year.

The lecture, 'Security and Democracy - Is There a Conflict?' will be shown on BBC 1 and is the latest manifestation of the thaw in MI5's frosty relationship with the outside world. The television appearance falls far short, however, of the kind of two-way exchange of views sought 18 months ago by members of the Commons home affairs select committee, whose invitation for her to appear before them was thwarted by the Government.

Number 10 said Mrs Rimington had consulted Michael Howard, the Home Secretary, over giving the lecture and the Prime Minister was also 'perfectly happy' for her to do so. The speech will not be 'vetted' by the Government.

MI5 was put on a statutory basis in 1989 and the identity of its chief officially revealed in 1991 on Mrs Rimington's appointment as the first female director-general.

An official photocall and the launch of a glossy brochure came last July as part of the 'open government' initiative. That put an end to blurred newspaper shots of Mrs Rimington out shopping.

The BBC lecture will be the first time Mrs Rimington has undertaken a full-scale public speaking engagement, still less a televised one. The broadcast will further raise the profile of the service, which took over responsibility for mainland intelligence about Irish terrrorism in October 1992.

Under the Intelligence Services Bill going through Parliament a six-strong committee of MPs and peers, handpicked by the Prime Minister, will oversee the expenditure, administration and policy of the service and report back to him.