AMID the scandal of British spies working for the Russians for years with impunity even while the intelligence services knew of them, and valid and crucial though the questions are about how many there were of them and what harm they did, a fundamental point is raised once more - that of who is in charge of national security: the government or the spooks?

The unmasking of the unrepentant 87-year-old great-grandmother, Melita Norwood, as a Soviet agent who was suspected as long ago as 1945 of giving away atomic secrets and yet remains unmolested by the law even now, comes with a shocking disclosure.

For it is revealed that when her role was confirmed seven years ago by the trove of material delivered to Britain by KGB defector Vasili Mitrokhin, security chiefs decided that she should not be prosecuted or even interviewed - and never even told ministers.

Indeed, it was only nine months ago that Home Secretary Jack Straw was eventually informed and, amazingly, only last week, as tales of Russian agents and Cold War plots were revealed from a forthcoming book, that it was divulged to the Prime Minister.

If this is the level of the security service's accountability, it is a wonder that the rest of the Cabinet does not have to buy the book to find out what is going on. It is the old story of our intelligence chiefs acting as a law unto themselves, with disdain for their ministerial bosses, for parliament and the public.

Mr Straw is right to set about bringing them under tighter control.

For while it may be accepted that in the murky world of international espionage there may be a real need for suspected traitors to be left alone so that the other side is not alerted to their cover being blown, it does not follow that security chiefs may behave in this way without reporting to government.

To allow them to do so also renders them unaccountable when they make mistakes or blunders and when our national security is seriously compromised.

The pattern of spies being exposed in their old age and escaping the law is becoming too well established for people to be comfortable with the notion that the security service knows what it is doing even if it deigns not to tell its bosses and paymasters.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.