The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) is an all-source

intelligence organisation 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 informatio ...

closely related to the United Kingdom Security Service which provides advice to the British government and firms within the Critical National Infrastructure on

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

threats. Operating from Thames House on

Millbank Millbank is an area of central London in the City of Westminster. Millbank is located by the River Thames, east of Pimlico and south of Westminster. Millbank is known as the location of major government offices, Burberry headquarters, the Mi ...

in central

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, it provides regular assessments to government departments, major companies and institutions, predominantly in the transport, financial services, utilities and telecommunications industries.

Organisation

The Director of JTAC reports to the

Director General A director general or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals'' ) or general director is a senior executive officer, often the chief executive officer, within a governmen ...

of the Security Service (commonly known as MI5), and directs a staff including personnel from the Security Service,

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 intellige ...

(commonly known as MI6),

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 ...

(GCHQ), Defence Intelligence Staff, Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorist Command and a further six government departments. Personnel are seconded to JTAC but remain under the authority of their parent organisations. As a body closely related to the Security Service, JTAC is bound by the provisions of the Intelligence Services Act 1994 and is subject to the oversight of the Intelligence and Security Committee.

Dissemination of information

Assessments are used to inform the threat levels disseminated through the Security Service, Home Office and

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 state ...

. Until very recently these threat levels were promulgated in a form known as the

BIKINI state The Bikini state was an alert state indicator previously used by the UK Ministry of Defence to warn of non-specific forms of threat, including civil disorder, terrorism or war. Signs giving the current alert state were displayed at the entrance ...

and Tesseral State. The current threat system is similar to, and largely aligned with, the US Department of Homeland Security rating system.

Threat levels

The range of five available threat levels is: *Low – an attack is unlikely *Moderate – an attack is possible, but not likely *Substantial – an attack is a strong possibility *Severe – an attack is highly likely *Critical – an attack is expected imminently This is a reduction from the previous seven levels in order to simplify communication to the general public.

Public attention

JTAC rose to public prominence following the terrorist attacks in London in July 2005. Media reporting highlighted a reduction in the threat level from ''"Severe General"'' to ''"Substantial"'' based on the assessment that the risk of an attack was at its lowest point since 9/11. These news reports were the first release of threat gradings outside the Critical National Infrastructure.

References

* (pdf)

External links