The Prince of Wales's Intelligence Community Awards (or the Intelligence Agencies Awards) are awards given annually by the

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales (, ; ) is a title traditionally given to the male heir apparent to the History of the English monarchy, English, and later, the British throne. The title originated with the Welsh rulers of Kingdom of Gwynedd, Gwynedd who, from ...

to members of the three

intelligence agencies An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy objectives. Means of inf ...

MI5 MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), officially the Security Service, is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Gov ...

Secret Intelligence Service The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 (MI numbers, Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of Human i ...

, and

GCHQ Government Communications Headquarters (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 United Kingdom. Primar ...

, of the United Kingdom.

King Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and ...

conceived of the idea of the awards in 2011, and the format of the awards was agreed by the agencies. The awards are intended to reward people who could never make public their work due to its secret nature. Prince Charles become the inaugural patron of the three intelligence agencies in 2012, at their request. In a 2019 speech given to members of staff at the GCHQ headquarters in Cheltenham Charles said that he had " ... sought to champion and celebrate the remarkable work that you do and the essential role you play on behalf of this country". The awards are typically held at a lunchtime ceremony in the state apartments of

St James's Palace St James's Palace is the most senior royal palace in London, England. The palace gives its name to the Court of St James's, which is the monarch's royal court, and is located in the City of Westminster. Although no longer the principal residence ...

Clarence House Clarence House is a royal residence on The Mall in the City of Westminster, London. It was built in 1825–1827, adjacent to St James's Palace, for the royal Duke of Clarence, the future King William IV. The four-storey house is faced in ...

on an annual basis. The awards are typically attended by 200 guests including friends and family members of the recipients. Awards and citations are given to teams within the agencies as well as individuals.

References

{{Charles III 2012 establishments Awards established in 2012 British awards British intelligence agencies Charles III Intelligence and espionage-related awards and decorations