By Kim Sengupta
Civil service An intelligence officer from the Cabinet Office who left top secret documents about Iraq and Afghanistan on a train is to face charges under the Official Secrets Act.
The civil servant, who had been suspended and interviewed by detectives since the incident three months ago, is expected to be formally charged when he arrives at a police station in the next few days for an appointment, when he will be accompanied by his solicitor.
According to security sources, the main basis of the charge would be the allegation that the official had taken highly sensitive material out of the office without authorisation.
It is believed that the civil servant, an analyst with the Cabinet Office's Joint Intelligence Committee, was taking the documents home to read but accidentally left them behind in the carriage.
The paperwork, in an orange cardboard folder, was found on a seat on a London to Surrey train on 10 June and handed over to the BBC by a member of the public. It was subsequently produced on the evening news by the corporation's security correspondent Frank Gardner.
One set of documents contained scathing assessments of Iraqi security forces and intelligence. Another, commissioned by the Foreign and Home Offices, looked at al-Qa'ida's supposed vulnerabilities. As well as British officials, they were due to be circulated to their American, Australian and Canadian counterparts.
A few days later a second batch of confidential documents was left on a train from Waterloo in London and handed over to The Independent on Sunday. The files included briefing notes for a meeting of the Financial Action Trust Force (FATF) which deals with financial crime and the funding of terrorism.
Sir David Omand, former permanent secretary for security and intelligence, carried out an investigation into the loss of the first set of documents, and its conclusions are due to form new guidelines on security.
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