The Dutch government wants to exert more influence over cyber security company Fox-IT, which has a contract to ensure the safety of Dutch state secrets, the NRC said on Wednesday.

Fox-IT was taken over by British firm NCC at the end of 2015 for €133m and officials fear this means the British security service will win access to sensitive Dutch information, the paper said.

The paper used freedom of information legislation to access documents which show that the Dutch state is trying to increase its grip on Fox-IT.

In particular, the military security service MIVD wants Fox-IT to place all its Dutch government contracts into its subsidiary Fox Crypto which may not be sold, merged or dissolved without defence ministry permission. It also wants a say in the naming of senior executives and major decisions.

The MIVD is also demanding assurances that NCC staff will have no access to state secrets.

If the company does not agree to the Dutch proposals, they will lose the Dutch cyber security contract, the NRC said.