Author: Great Britain: Intelligence and Security Committee

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 60

ISBN-13: 9780101754224

The focus of this Report is the administration, policy and finance of the three Agencies - the Security Service, the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) and the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) - and issues concerning the wider intelligence community. The Agencies' resources have increased, and will continue to increase over the next three years, but they still have to make difficult decisions about priorities, often on a daily basis. The stark reality is that they cannot cover all the threats to the level desired. This report examines all the challenges the Agencies face in allocating their resources, how they use those resources, and how to ensure they are providing value for money (particularly in the current economic climate). It also examines common areas of concern such as resilience. The Report also examines the work of the wider intelligence community: it is clear that the Agencies can not work in isolation, and therefore in overseeing them the Committee must also examine the work of others. The Report therefore also comments on the Government's counter-terrorism strategy (CONTEST) and the work of the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism in the Home Office; the intelligence structure in the Cabinet Office (including the Joint Intelligence Committee and the Assessments Staff); other Agencies within the community, such as the Defence Intelligence Staff, the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre and the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure; and issues which affect the community as a whole such as the use of intercept material as evidence in court, and the SCOPE IT system.