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The Government of the United Kingdom 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." Энцикло� ...
, 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 ...
, and performing espionage and counter-espionage. Their intelligence assessments contribute to the conduct of the foreign relations of the United Kingdom, maintaining the national security of the United Kingdom, 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 (SIS or MI6), the Security Service (MI5), the Government Communications Headquarters (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 Declaration by United Nations, United Nations from 1942, were an international Coalition#Military, military coalition formed during the World War II, Second World War (1939–1945) to oppose the Axis ...
. 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 ...
, GCHQ interceptions of Soviet ship positions were sent directly to the White House. 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" between the United Kingdom and the United States.


National security community


Committees

* National Security Council * 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 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 t ...
, 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 Gur ...
, 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 ...
, 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 Naval ...
(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 so ...
, established in 1902, was responsible for research, and some co-ordination, on issues of military strategy. 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, the two sections underwent administrative changes so that the internal counter-espionage section became the Directorate of Military Intelligence Section 5 ( MI5) 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 (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 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. ...
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 Unit ...
" (GC&CS). The Joint Intelligence Committee was founded in 1936 as a sub-committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence. During World War II, 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 p ...
(SOE) was a World War II organisation operational from 1940 until early 1946. SOE conducted espionage, sabotage 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 (skirmishers ...
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 ...
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 N ...
and aided local resistance movements. 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 1 ...
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 ciphers, but also a large number of other systems. Winston Churchill was reported to have told King George VI, 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 w ...
(head of the Secret Intelligence Service 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 Frederick William Winterbotham (16 April 1897 – 28 January 1990) was a British Royal Air Force officer (latterly a Group Captain) who during World War II supervised the distribution of Ultra intelligence. His book ''The Ultra Secret'' was ...
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" (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 in 1948. It was later broadened to include Canada, Australia and New Zealand, known as the Five Eyes, as well as cooperation with several "third-party" nations. This became the cornerstone of Western intelligence gathering and the " Special Relationship" between the UK and the USA. Since World War II, the chief of the London station of the United States
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, Canada, and New Zealand 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 ...
,
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 serving ...
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 was formed in 1964, the Joint Intelligence Bureau, Naval Intelligence, Military Intelligence and Air Intelligence were combined to form the Defence Intelligence Staff (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 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 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, which was established in 2010. The National Crime Agency, 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 A ...
(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 sponsorsh ...
(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, which dates back to 2004 and has been hosted by the Metropolitan Police Service 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 ...
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, ...
. 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 redu ...
(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 (SIS/MI6),SIS: Funding and financial controls
Retrieved on 2 March 2014.
Government Communications Headquarters (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 ...
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 (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, e ...
*
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 po ...
*
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 United Kingdom Government agencies of the United Kingdom Espionage in the United Kingdom