Judgment Approved by the court for handing down. Miranda v SSHD that theoretical risk might materialise, and which would have enabled the court to balance that risk against the infringement of the rights of Mr Miranda, was absent. Mr Ryder also criticises the approach adopted by Laws LJ to the issue of “responsible journalism”. He submits that there was nothing to suggest that Mr Miranda, Mr Greenwald and the Guardian would not approach the question of publication with the degree of responsibility that was appropriate to the circumstances of the case. Conclusion on proportionality 79. I start with a proposition to which Mr Ryder readily and properly acceded during the course of oral argument. When determining the proportionality of a decision taken by the police in the interests of national security, the court should accord a substantial degree of deference to their expertise in assessing the risk to national security and in weighing it against countervailing interests. This is because the police have both the institutional competence and the constitutional responsibility to make such assessments and decisions. As regards the latter, they are ultimately accountable to Parliament and the constitutional responsibility for the protection of national security lies with the elected government: see, for example, R (Binyam Mohamed) v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs [2011] QB 218, [2010] EWCA Civ 158, per Lord Neuberger MR at para 131. 80. In Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs v Assistant Deputy Coroner for Inner London [2013] EWHC 3724 (Admin), Goldring LJ having reviewed some of the authorities said at para 57 that, when carrying out the balancing exercise of weighing national security against (in that case) the proper administration of justice: “….the Secretary of State’s view regarding the nature and extent of damage to national security which will flow from disclosure should be accepted unless there are cogent or solid reasons to reject it.” 81. All risks are concerned with future possibilities. That is in their nature. Some risks may be assessed as being so unlikely to materialise that they can be dismissed as fanciful. Others may be assessed as very likely to materialise. Between these two extremes there is a wide band of degrees of likelihood of a risk materialising. The more likely the risk is assessed to be, the greater the weight that should be accorded to it when balancing it against a countervailing factor. By using the word “theoretical” in this case, I understand Mr Ryder to be saying that the risk in question is very unlikely to materialise. He may even be saying that it is fanciful. 82. I do not accept that the evidence of Det Supt Stokley, Mr Robbins and Det Supt Goode can be brushed aside in this way. Laws LJ was right to describe it as “compelling”. I have in mind, in particular, the evidence of Mr Robbins that the material seized was “highly likely to describe techniques that have been crucial in lifesaving counter-terrorism operations, the prevention and detection of serious crime and other intelligence activities vital to the security of the UK” (emphasis added). The evidence of Det Supt Stokley was to similar effect: see para 71 above. There is no reason to disagree with their assessment of the risk. Indeed, the court is ill equipped to do so. The police and the Security Service have the expertise and access to secret