[4] The members of the committee are notified under the Official Secrets Act 1989 and are given access to highly classified material in carrying out their duties.

[5] The committee holds evidence sessions with government ministers and senior officials (for example, the heads of the security and intelligence agencies), expert witnesses such as academics and journalists, and other interested parties.

[5] Unlike a select committee, the ISC shares its reports with the government and agencies it oversees in advance of publication.

By convention, the prime minister has 10 working days in which to examine the report and confirm that there are no national security issues outstanding.

[12] The ISC gained stronger powers under the Justice and Security Act 2013 and is no longer appointed by the prime minister: as a result its reports since then have been seen as independent.

[5] Malcolm Rifkind was chair until 24 February 2015, when he resigned following a sting by journalists involving a bogus Chinese company and his suspension from the Conservative Party.

[14][better source needed] He was re-elected as chair by the committee on 23 November 2017 when it reconvened after the June 2017 general election.

[24] The report thereafter went through a process of redaction by intelligence and security agencies and was sent to Prime Minister Boris Johnson on 17 October 2019.

[26][27] Prime Minister Johnson approved its release on 13 December 2019, the day after the general election,[28] Johnson pledged in Prime Minister's Questions in February 2020 that the report would be released, but that it could not be released until the Intelligence and Security Committee (which disbanded following the dissolution of parliament ahead of the election) was reconstituted; a former chair of the committee, Dominic Grieve, said that this was an "entirely bogus" reason for delaying publication.