SIS in Government

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The Central Intelligence Machinery

The Government's national security policies aim to protect UK and British territories, and British nationals and property, from a range of threats, including from terrorism and espionage; to protect and promote Britain's defence and foreign policy interests; to protect and promote the UK's economic well-being and support the prevention and detection of serious crime.

Intelligence from secret sources is used to support these aspects of the Government's policies. Intelligence collection is carried out by SIS (mainly outside the UK), the Security Service (mainly in the UK) and GCHQ (signals intelligence - sigint - globally) in response to the requirements set elsewhere in the machinery.  Machinery at the centre of Government, in the Cabinet Office, is responsible for the tasking of the Agencies in accordance with agreed requirements and priorities, funding and performance monitoring.

For further information you can visit the Intelligence Community website and in particular, see UK Government intelligence: its nature, collection, assessment and use for information on how intelligence is gathered and used, and its limitations.

The Role of Ministers

In their day-to-day operations the intelligence and security agencies each operate under the immediate control of their respective Heads, who each have a statutory duty to provide annual reports on the work of their Service to the Prime Minister and to their Secretary of State. They also brief their respective Secretaries of State regularly. 

The Prime Minister has overall responsibility for intelligence and security matters. He accounts to Parliament for matters affecting the agencies collectively. He is advised by the Prime Minister's Security Adviser and Head of Intelligence, Security and Resilience. The Home Secretary is responsible for the Security Service; the Foreign Secretary for SIS and GCHQ; and the Defence Secretary for the Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS). 

There is also a Ministerial Committee on the Intelligence Services (with the acronym CSI) which is charged with keeping under review policy on the security and intelligence services.  This is chaired by the Prime Minister. He is joined on the committee by the Deputy Prime Minister, the Foreign, Home and Defence Secretaries as well as the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The Permanent Secretaries' Committee on the Intelligence Services

Ministers are assisted in oversight of SIS, the Security Service and GCHQ by the Permanent Secretaries' Committee on the Intelligence Services (PSIS). This provides advice on, amongst other things, the requirements and priorities for intelligence collection and assessment, which are established by the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC).  It also advises on intelligence agency programmes and expenditure and other intelligence issues.

The Prime Minister's Security Adviser and Head of Intelligence, Security and Resilience

Robert Hannigan is the Prime Minister's Security Adviser and the Head of Intelligence, Security and Resilience in the Cabinet Office. He is responsible to the Prime Minister for advising on security, intelligence and emergency-related matters. His responsibilities include ensuring effective co-ordination within Government and with partners both in the UK and internationally. He supports the Cabinet Secretary in his role as Accounting Officer for the Single Intelligence Account which funds SIS, the Security Service and GCHQ. 

The Joint Intelligence Committee

This is part of the Cabinet Office and is responsible for providing Ministers and senior officials with co-ordinated interdepartmental intelligence assessments on a range of issues of immediate and long-term importance to national interests, primarily in the fields of security, defence and foreign affairs. The Committee periodically scrutinises the performance of the Agencies in meeting the collection requirements placed upon them.

The JIC draws its membership from senior officials in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Home Office, Department for Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform, Treasury, the Ministry of Defence, Department for International Development and Cabinet Office. The heads of SIS, the Security Service and GCHQ and the Chief of the Assessments staff are also members, whilst representatives of other departments of State attend when necessary.

The Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee and Head of Intelligence Assessment

The senior official responsible to the Prime Minister for supervising the work of the JIC is the JIC Chairman. Amongst his other tasks, he must ensure that the JIC's warning and monitoring role is carried out effectively.  He also heads the Joint Intelligence Organisation, which includes the Assessments Staff. The current JIC Chairman is Alex Allan, who was appointed in December 2007.

Joint Intelligence Committee - Terms of reference

The Assessments Staff

The JIC is supported by the Cabinet Office Assessments Staff, which consists of a range of analytical staff seconded from various departments, services and disciplines. It drafts assessments on threats to British interests drawing on intelligence from SIS and the other Agencies augmented by British diplomatic reporting and open sources. The Assessments Staff works closely with other government departments when preparing assessments. These assessments are subjected to formal inter-departmental scrutiny.