It is often difficult to discuss secret evidence in any meaningful way – its very secrecy makes its contents impossible for the public to scrutinise.
But the Guardian has assembled a group who are in the unique position of having been on the receiving end of this evidence. Clive Stafford Smith – a human rights lawyer who has represented detainees at Guantanamo Bay – says that, in the overwhelming majority of cases secret evidence used against terrorism suspects does not stand up to judicial scrutiny.
Ian MacDonald QC, who withdrew from his work as a special advocate, says that he refused to take part in a such a "bizarre, ridiculous and odious system", having witnessed the erosion of rights which England fought a civil war to protect.
The Guardian's senior reporter Ian Cobain talks about his experience that evidence has been kept secret by the government, not to protect national security, but to protect its own agents from allegations of serious criminal wrongdoing.
And Gareth Peirce, famous for representing victims of miscarriages of justice as well as terrorism suspects, talks about the draconian effect secret evidence has had on her clients and how the UK has led the way internationally in secrecy with "a panoply of psychodrama and courts … that disguises the fact this is an absolutely unscrupulous exercise of power".
Our panel talk about whether we should trust the government to use secret evidence fairly, what its growth means for the fundamental principles of the UK justice system, what the courts have said, and what the future holds.
