Shocking number of surveillance blunders made by Britain’s top spies and undercover cops in a single year revealed

BRITAIN’S spooks and undercover cops admitted making more than 330 blunders in a year spying on suspected terrorists and criminals. Spies working for MI5, MI6 and GCHQ cocked up while conducting “property interference and intrusive surveillance” ops. Britain’s spooks and undercover cops admitted making more than 330 blunders over the past year Credit: Getty Spies working for MI5, MI6 and GCHQ admitted the errors – Pictured: MI5 headquarters at Thames House in London Credit: Alamy Details emerged in the Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s annual report for 2025. It said: “In 2024, there was an increase in the number of errors, with 333 reported by the UK intelligence community (UKIC), compared with 222 reported in 2023. Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! There was also an increase in the number of errors reported by law enforcement interception agencies, largely resulting from an increase in errors reported by the National Crime Agency.” The watchdog was set up in 2017 to scrutinise spying powers used by the police, intelligence agencies and other public authorities. From 2017 to 2024, spies and undercover cops reported more than 1,500 errors while conducting covert surveillance operations. The report also reveals four juvenile covert human intelligence sources, aged between 10 and 17, were recruited in 2024 by law enforcement agencies. Since 2017, around 30 juveniles have been hired to work for the police. The report said: “Juvenile CHIS authorisations remain rare and are granted only in exceptional circumstances. Most read in The Sun “In most cases, the intelligence obtained relates to serious youth violence and would not be accessible through adult CHIS.” Comment now