The two intelligence services had to operate in a legal vacuum for a long time. Since 1991, regulations in the intelligence sector have greatly increased. By the Act of 18 July 1991 [pdf] the intelligence services were subjected to the review of the Standing Committee I.

A second milestone was the Act of 30 November 1998 [pdf] governing the intelligence and security services, which for the first time set out the responsibilities of the civil and military intelligence services.

Since then, many other laws have been added:

• the Act of 11 December 1998 [pdf] on classification and security clearances, certificates and advices (see also the Royal Decree of 24 March 2000 [pdf]);
• the Act of 11 December 1998 [pdf], which designates the Standing Committee I as the appeal body for security clearances;
• the Act of 3 April 2003 modifying Articles 42 to 44 of the Act of 30 November 1998, which sets the methods of interception of communication by the General Intelligence and Security Service and which sets the methods of review by the Standing Committee I;
• the Act of 3 May 2005 giving the practice of security certificates and security advice a legal basis through the introduction of articles 22bis to 22sexies into the Act of 11 December 1998 [pdf] (see also the Royal Decree of 24 March 2000) [pdf] );
• the Act of 10 July 2006 [pdf] on threat assessment, which set up the Coordination Unit for Threat Assessment (see also the Royal Decree of 28 November 2006 [pdf]).

Recently, the Act of 4 February 2010 on special intelligence methods by the intelligence and security services was passed. This Act has come into force on 1 September 2010. This Act has changed a series of existing acts.

For a full overview of all standards (treaties, acts, royal decrees and ministerial orders, but also relevant directives and cooperation agreements), we refer to the table of contents of the Intelligence Services Codex issued by the Standing Committee I.

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