Former Attorney General Dominic Grieve has been made the chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee.
Grieve, the Tory MP who served as the coalition government's chief legal adviser, will now head up he parliamentary committee made up of MPs and peers which oversees the work of Britain’s security services.
He takes up the post amid controversy over David Cameron's decision to use a RAF drone strike to kill British jihadis operating in Syria.
Many MPs, including Labour's new leader Jeremy Corbyn have questioned whether the attack was needed. The government insists it was legal but has not published the advice given.
Grieve, who is seen as independent minded, has frequently criticised the prime minister's suggestion that the UK pull out of the European court of human rights.
Speaking earlier today, Grieve's replacement as Attorney General, Jeremy Wright, said he did not know whether the UK would still be a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights at the end of the current parliament in 2020.
Wright insisted that the UK's international reputation for upholding human rights would not be damaged if it left the convention.
"It isn't solely the maintenance of our membership of the European convention that demonstrates our adherence to the principles of human rights," he told MPs.