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The
Government of the United Kingdom ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal coat of arms of t ...
maintains intelligence agencies within three
government departments Ministry or department (also less commonly used secretariat, office, or directorate) are designations used by first-level executive bodies in the machinery of governments that manage a specific sector of public administration." ЭнциклоР...
, the Foreign Office, the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence. These agencies are responsible for
collecting The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining items that are of interest to an individual ''collector''. Collections differ in a wide variety of respects, most obvio ...
and analysing foreign and domestic intelligence, providing
military intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a ...
, and performing
espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangibl ...
and counter-espionage. Their intelligence assessments contribute to the conduct of the
foreign relations of the United Kingdom The diplomatic foreign relations of the United Kingdom are conducted by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, headed by the Foreign Secretary. The prime minister and numerous other agencies play a role in setting policy, and many ...
, maintaining the
national security of the United Kingdom National security, or national defence, is the security and defence of a sovereign state, including its citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of government. Originally conceived as protection against military attack ...
, military planning and
law enforcement in the United Kingdom Law enforcement in the United Kingdom is organised separately in each of the legal systems of the United Kingdom: England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Most law enforcement is carried out by police officers serving in regional pol ...
. The four main agencies are the
Secret Intelligence Service The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...
(SIS or MI6), the Security Service (MI5), the
Government Communications Headquarters Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Un ...
(GCHQ) and
Defence Intelligence Defence Intelligence (DI) is an organisation within the United Kingdom intelligence community which focuses on gathering and analysing military intelligence. It differs from the UK's intelligence agencies (MI6, GCHQ and MI5) in that it is an ...
(DI). The history of the organisations dates back to the 19th century. The decryption of the Zimmermann Telegram in 1917 was described as the most significant intelligence triumph for Britain during World War I, and one of the earliest occasions on which a piece of signals intelligence influenced world events. During the Second World War and afterwards, many observers regarded
Ultra adopted by British military intelligence in June 1941 for wartime signals intelligence obtained by breaking high-level encrypted enemy radio and teleprinter communications at the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park. '' ...
as immensely valuable to the
Allies of World War II The Allies, formally referred to as the United Nations from 1942, were an international military coalition formed during the Second World War (1939–1945) to oppose the Axis powers, led by Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Fascist Italy. ...
. In 1962, during the
Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis (of 1962) ( es, Crisis de Octubre) in Cuba, the Caribbean Crisis () in Russia, or the Missile Scare, was a 35-day (16 October – 20 November 1962) confrontation between the United S ...
, GCHQ interceptions of Soviet ship positions were sent directly to the
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...
. Intelligence cooperation in the post-war period between the United Kingdom and the United States became the cornerstone of Western intelligence gathering and the "
Special Relationship The Special Relationship is a term that is often used to describe the politics, political, social, diplomacy, diplomatic, culture, cultural, economics, economic, law, legal, Biophysical environment, environmental, religion, religious, military ...
" between the United Kingdom and the United States.


National security community


Committees

*
National Security Council A national security council (NSC) is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security. An NSC is often headed by a na ...
* Joint Intelligence Committee *
Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament The Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament (ISC) is a statutory joint committee of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, appointed to oversee the work of the UK intelligence community. The committee was established in 1994 by the I ...


Supporting organisations

The
National Security Secretariat The National Security Council is a United Kingdom cabinet committee. The Council's terms of reference was said in September 2022 to consider matters relating to national security, foreign policy, defence, trade, international relations, developme ...
and the Joint Intelligence Organisation are part of
Cabinet Office The Cabinet Office is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for supporting the prime minister and Cabinet. It is composed of various units that support Cabinet committees and which co-ordinate the delivery of government objecti ...
. They support, respectively, the National Security Council and the Joint Intelligence Committee.


Agencies


History

Organised intelligence collection and planning for the
government of the United Kingdom ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal coat of arms of t ...
and the
British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
was established during the 19th century. The
War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...
, responsible for the administration of the
British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
, formed the Intelligence Branch in 1873, which became the Directorate of Military Intelligence. The
Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong *Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral *Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings * Admiralty, Traf ...
, responsible for the command of the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
, formed the Foreign Intelligence Committee in 1882, which evolved into the
Naval Intelligence Department The Naval Intelligence Department (NID) was the intelligence arm of the British Admiralty from 1887 until 1912 when most of its subsidiary divisions were absorbed during the creation of the Admiralty War Staff department that included a new Nava ...
(NID) in 1887. The
Committee of Imperial Defence The Committee of Imperial Defence was an important ''ad hoc'' part of the Government of the United Kingdom and the British Empire from just after the Second Boer War until the start of the Second World War. It was responsible for research, and som ...
, established in 1902, was responsible for research, and some co-ordination, on issues of
military strategy Military strategy is a set of ideas implemented by military organizations to pursue desired strategic goals. Derived from the Greek word '' strategos'', the term strategy, when it appeared in use during the 18th century, was seen in its narrow s ...
. The Secret Service Bureau was founded in 1909 as a joint initiative of the Admiralty and the War Office to control secret intelligence operations in the UK and overseas, particularly concentrating on the activities of the Imperial German government. The Bureau was split into naval and army sections which, over time, specialised in foreign espionage and internal counter-espionage activities respectively. This specialisation, formalised prior to 1914, was a result of the Admiralty intelligence requirements related to the maritime strength of the Imperial German Navy. In 1916, during
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, the two sections underwent administrative changes so that the internal counter-espionage section became the Directorate of Military Intelligence Section 5 (
MI5 The Security Service, also known as MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), G ...
) and the foreign section became the Directorate of Military Intelligence Section 6 (
MI6 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...
), names by which the Security Service and Secret Intelligence Service are commonly known today. The Naval Intelligence Division led the Royal Navy's highly successful cryptographic efforts,
Room 40 Room 40, also known as 40 O.B. (old building; officially part of NID25), was the cryptanalysis section of the British Admiralty during the First World War. The group, which was formed in October 1914, began when Rear-Admiral Henry Oliver, the ...
(later known as NID25). The decryption of the Zimmermann Telegram was described as the most significant intelligence triumph for Britain during World War I, and one of the earliest occasions on which a piece of signals intelligence influenced world events. The
Imperial War Cabinet The Imperial War Cabinet (IWC) was the British Empire's wartime coordinating body. It met over three sessions, the first from 20 March to 2 May 1917, the second from 11 June to late July 1918, and the third from 20 or 25 November 1918 to early Jan ...
was the British Empire's wartime coordinating body. In 1919, the Cabinet's Secret Service Committee, recommended that a peacetime codebreaking agency should be created.Johnson, 1997, p. 44 Staff were merged from NID25 and
MI1b MI1 or British ''Military Intelligence, Section 1'' was a department of the British Directorate of Military Intelligence, part of the War Office. It was set up during World War I. It contained "C&C", which was responsible for code breaking. I ...
into the new organisation, which was given the cover-name the "
Government Code and Cypher School Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Uni ...
" (GC&CS). The Joint Intelligence Committee was founded in 1936 as a sub-committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence. During
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, it became the senior intelligence assessment body for the United Kingdom government. Following the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, the RAF Intelligence Branch was established, although personnel had been employed in intelligence duties in the RAF since its formation in 1918. The
Special Operations Executive The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its pu ...
(SOE) was a World War II organisation operational from 1940 until early 1946. SOE conducted
espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangibl ...
,
sabotage Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''saboteur''. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identitie ...
and
reconnaissance In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, terrain, and other activities. Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops (skirmisher ...
in
occupied Europe German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 an ...
and later in occupied Southeast Asia against the
Axis powers The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...
and aided local
resistance movement A resistance movement is an organized effort by some portion of the civil population of a country to withstand the legally established government or an occupying power and to disrupt civil order and stability. It may seek to achieve its objective ...
s. During the Second World War, the Government Code and Cypher School was based largely at
Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following ...
working on, most significantly, the German Enigma machine (codenamed
Ultra adopted by British military intelligence in June 1941 for wartime signals intelligence obtained by breaking high-level encrypted enemy radio and teleprinter communications at the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park. '' ...
) and
Lorenz cipher The Lorenz SZ40, SZ42a and SZ42b were German rotor stream cipher machines used by the German Army during World War II. They were developed by C. Lorenz AG in Berlin. The model name ''SZ'' was derived from ''Schlüssel-Zusatz'', meaning ''cipher ...
s, but also a large number of other systems.
Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
was reported to have told
King George VI George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was also the last Emperor of Ind ...
, when presenting to him
Stewart Menzies Major General Sir Stewart Graham Menzies, (; 30 January 1890 – 29 May 1968) was Chief of MI6, the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), from 1939 to 1952, during and after the Second World War. Early life, family Stewart Graham Menzies wa ...
(head of the
Secret Intelligence Service The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...
and the person who controlled distribution of Ultra decrypts to the government): "It is thanks to the secret weapon of General Menzies, put into use on all the fronts, that we won the war!" F. W. Winterbotham quoted the western Supreme Allied Commander,
Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
, at war's end describing Ultra as having been "decisive" to Allied victory. Sir Harry Hinsley, Bletchley Park veteran and official historian of British Intelligence in World War II, made a similar assessment about Ultra, saying that it shortened the war "by not less than two years and probably by four years"; and that, in the absence of Ultra, it is uncertain how the war would have ended. GC&CS was renamed the "
Government Communications Headquarters Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Un ...
" (GCHQ) in 1946. Wartime signals intelligence cooperation between the United Kingdom and the United States continued in the post-war period. The two countries signed the bilateral
UKUSA Agreement The United Kingdom – United States of America Agreement (UKUSA, ) is a multilateral agreement for cooperation in signals intelligence between Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The alliance of intellig ...
in 1948. It was later broadened to include Canada, Australia and New Zealand, known as the
Five Eyes The Five Eyes (FVEY) is an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. These countries are parties to the multilateral UKUSA Agreement, a treaty for joint cooperation in sign ...
, as well as cooperation with several "third-party" nations. This became the cornerstone of Western intelligence gathering and the "
Special Relationship The Special Relationship is a term that is often used to describe the politics, political, social, diplomacy, diplomatic, culture, cultural, economics, economic, law, legal, Biophysical environment, environmental, religion, religious, military ...
" between the UK and the USA. Since World War II, the chief of the London station of the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
has attended the Joint Intelligence Committee's weekly meetings. One former US intelligence officer has described this as the "highlight of the job" for the London CIA chief. Resident intelligence chiefs from
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
,
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, and
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
may attend when certain issues are discussed. In 1946 the Joint Intelligence Bureau (JIB) was established. The JIB was structured into a series of divisions: procurement (JIB 1), geographic (JIB 2 and JIB 3), defences, ports and beaches (JIB 4), airfields (JIB 5), key points (JIB 6), oil (JIB 7) and telecommunications (JIB 8). The Joint Intelligence Committee moved to the
Cabinet Office The Cabinet Office is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for supporting the prime minister and Cabinet. It is composed of various units that support Cabinet committees and which co-ordinate the delivery of government objecti ...
in 1957 with its assessments staff who prepared intelligence assessments for the committee to consider. During the
Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis (of 1962) ( es, Crisis de Octubre) in Cuba, the Caribbean Crisis () in Russia, or the Missile Scare, was a 35-day (16 October – 20 November 1962) confrontation between the United S ...
,
GCHQ Scarborough GCHQ Scarborough is a satellite ground station located on Irton Moor, on the outskirts of Scarborough in North Yorkshire, England, operated by the British signals intelligence service (GCHQ). It is believed to be the longest continuous servin ...
intercepted radio communications from Soviet ships reporting their positions and used that to establish where they were heading. A copy of the report was sent directly to the White House Situation Room, providing initial indications of Soviet intentions with regards the US naval blockade of Cuba. When the
Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...
was formed in 1964, the Joint Intelligence Bureau, Naval Intelligence, Military Intelligence and Air Intelligence were combined to form the
Defence Intelligence Staff Defence Intelligence (DI) is an organisation within the United Kingdom intelligence community which focuses on gathering and analysing military intelligence. It differs from the UK's intelligence agencies (MI6, GCHQ and MI5) in that it is an ...
(DIS). The DIS focussed initially on Cold War issues. In 1973,
Clifford Cocks Clifford Christopher Cocks (born 28 December 1950) is a British mathematician and cryptographer. In 1973, while working at the United Kingdom Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), he invented a public-key cryptography algorithm equiv ...
invented a
public-key cryptography Public-key cryptography, or asymmetric cryptography, is the field of cryptographic systems that use pairs of related keys. Each key pair consists of a public key and a corresponding private key. Key pairs are generated with cryptographic alg ...
algorithm equivalent to what would become (in 1978) the
RSA algorithm RSA (Rivest–Shamir–Adleman) is a public-key cryptosystem that is widely used for secure data transmission. It is also one of the oldest. The acronym "RSA" comes from the surnames of Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and Leonard Adleman, who publicly ...
while working at GCHQ. The
Security Service Act 1989 The Security Service Act 1989 (c 5) is an Act of the United Kingdom Parliament. The Act established a statutory basis of the UK Security Service (MI5) for the first time. Prior to the Act, despite its operation since 1909, successive UK governme ...
established the legal basis of the Security Service (MI5) for the first time under the government led by Margaret Thatcher. GCHQ and the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) were placed on a statutory footing by the
Intelligence Services Act 1994 The Intelligence Services Act 1994 (c. 13) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act, sometimes abbreviated as ISA, is introduced by the long title which states: An Act to make provision about the Secret Intelligence Service ...
under the government led by John Major. In 2009, the Defence Intelligence Staff changed its name to Defence Intelligence (DI). The Joint Intelligence Organisation was formalised to provide intelligence assessment and advice on development of the UK intelligence community's analytical capability for the Joint Intelligence Committee and the
National Security Council A national security council (NSC) is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security. An NSC is often headed by a na ...
, which was established in 2010. The
National Crime Agency The National Crime Agency (NCA) is a national law enforcement agency in the United Kingdom. It is the UK's lead agency against organised crime; human, weapon and drug trafficking; cybercrime; and economic crime that goes across regional and in ...
, established in 2013, gathers and analyses intelligence on serious and organised crime. It was preceded by the
National Drugs Intelligence Unit The National Drugs Intelligence Unit (NDIU) is a British police service providing law enforcement agencies with information and intelligence about criminal activity. Its functions as defined in statute are to "gather, store and analyse information ...
(1970s–1992),
National Criminal Intelligence Service The National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) was a United Kingdom policing agency. Following the Police and Criminal Justice Act 2001, NCIS returned to direct funding by the Home Office in 2002 and was a non-departmental public body. On 1 Ap ...
(1992–2006), and the
Serious Organised Crime Agency The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) was a non-departmental public body of the Government of the United Kingdom which existed from 1 April 2006 until 7 October 2013. SOCA was a national law enforcement agency with Home Office sponsorship ...
(2006–2013). Five other organisations which collect and analyse domestic intelligence within specific fields were formed under the authority of the Home Office: the
National Domestic Extremism and Disorder Intelligence Unit The National Domestic Extremism and Disorder Intelligence Unit (formerly, the National Domestic Extremism Unit) is a national police unit of the National Police Chiefs' Council within the Metropolitan Police Service Specialist Operations Group. ...
, which dates back to 2004 and has been hosted by the
Metropolitan Police Service The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...
since 2011; the
Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority The Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) is the foremost intelligence and investigative agency for labour exploitation in the UK. Its role is to work in partnership with police and other law enforcement agencies such as the National Crime ...
which was formed in 2005; the
Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism Homeland Security Group is an executive directorate of the UK government Home Office, created in 2007, responsible for leading the work on counter-terrorism in the UK, working closely with the police and security services. The office reports to t ...
, created in 2007, which is responsible for leading work on
counter-terrorism Counterterrorism (also spelled counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, incorporates the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, business, and intelligence agencies use to combat or el ...
working closely with the police and security services; the
National Ballistics Intelligence Service The National Ballistics Intelligence Service, or NABIS, is a British intelligence service dedicated to managing and providing detailed information regarding firearm-related criminality. The service aims to use its database to store ballistics i ...
, which was created in 2008; and the
National Fraud Intelligence Bureau The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau is a police unit in the United Kingdom responsible for gathering and analysing intelligence relating to fraud and financially motivated cyber crime. The NFIB was created as part of the recommendations of the ...
, which was established in 2010 by the
City of London Police The City of London Police is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement within the City of London, including the Middle and Inner Temples. The force responsible for law enforcement within the remainder of the London region, ou ...
. The
Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure The Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) is the United Kingdom government authority which provides protective security advice to businesses and organisations across the national infrastructure. Their advice aims to reduc ...
(CPNI) was formed as a child agency of MI5 in 2007. It merged two predecessor bodies, the
National Infrastructure Security Co-ordination Centre The National Protective Security Authority (NPSA), formerly the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI), is the national technical authority in the United Kingdom for physical and personnel protective security, maintaining ...
(1999–2007) and the
National Security Advice Centre The National Protective Security Authority (NPSA), formerly the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI), is the national technical authority in the United Kingdom for physical and personnel protective security, maintaining ...
. In 2016, the cybersecurity-related aspects of the CPNI's role were taken over by the newly-formed National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), itself a child agency of GCHQ.


Budget


Single Intelligence Account

The Single Intelligence Account (SIA) is the funding vehicle for the three main security and intelligence agencies: the
Secret Intelligence Service The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...
(SIS/MI6),SIS: Funding and financial controls
Retrieved on 2 March 2014.
Government Communications Headquarters Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Un ...
(GCHQ)GCHQ funding & financial controls
Retrieved on 2 March 2014.
and the Security Service (MI5). Spending on the SIA was £3.2 billion in
financial year A fiscal year (or financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. Laws in many j ...
2017/18.


Defence Intelligence

Defence Intelligence has a unique position within the UK intelligence community as an ' all-source' intelligence function. It is integral part of the
Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...
(MoD) and is funded within the UK's defence budget.


Other agencies

The domestic intelligence and security organisations, including joint police units, described in the sections above are funded by the Home Office.


See also

*
Intelligence Corps (United Kingdom) The Intelligence Corps (Int Corps) is a corps of the British Army. It is responsible for gathering, analysing and disseminating military intelligence and also for counter-intelligence and security. The Director of the Intelligence Corps is a br ...
*
Club de Berne The Club de Berne is an intelligence sharing forum between the intelligence services of the 27 states of the European Union (EU), Norway and Switzerland, named after the city of Bern. It is an institution based on voluntary exchange of secrets, ...
*
Information Research Department The Information Research Department (IRD) was a secret Cold War propaganda department of the British Foreign Office, created to publish anti-communist propaganda, including black propaganda, provide support and information to anti-communist pol ...
*
List of intelligence agencies This is a list of intelligence agencies by country. It includes only currently operational institutions. An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law e ...
global list sorted by country *
UK cyber security community The cyber security (or information assurance) community in the United Kingdom is diverse, with many stakeholders groups contributing to support the '' UK Cyber Security Strategy''. The following is a list of some of these stakeholders. Governmen ...


References


Citations


Bibliography

* * Transcript of a lecture given on Tuesday 19 October 1993 at Cambridge University * * The first published account of the previously secret wartime operation, concentrating mainly on distribution of intelligence. It was written from memory and has been shown by subsequent authors, who had access to official records, to contain some inaccuracies. {{Authority control
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
Government agencies of the United Kingdom Espionage in the United Kingdom