National Intelligence Machinery
Key points
- Our work is coordinated with the other UK intelligence agencies through the National Intelligence Machinery.
- Sir Richard Mottram coordinates the intelligence machinery and chairs the Joint Intelligence Committee.
The UK's National Intelligence Machinery is coordinated by the Permanent Secretary, Intelligence, Security and Resilience, Sir Richard Mottram.
He advises the Prime Minister on the co-ordination of the intelligence machinery, the establishing of intelligence requirements and arrangements for assessing the performance of the security and intelligence agencies.
He is also Accounting Officer for the Single Intelligence Account and the Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC).
The JIC is the central body in the UK's interdepartmental intelligence machinery. It advises on priorities for intelligence collection and assesses performance against them.
The JIC is also responsible for assessing and giving early warning of external developments and threats likely to affect British interests. It draws on all sources of information, overt and covert. Principal customers for the JIC assessments are No 10, Ministers and senior officials in policy-making departments.
Other JIC members include the heads of the three security and intelligence agencies, the Chief of Defence Intelligence and senior representatives of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, the Ministry of Defence, the Department of Trade & Industry, the Home Office and HM Treasury.
Planning
Government departments' requirements and priorities for secret intelligence on matters to do with national security, economic well-being and the prevention of serious crime are reviewed annually by the JIC and approved by Ministers. The requirements are arranged in three orders of importance reflecting the scale, directness and immediacy of the risk or benefit to UK interests.
The statement of requirements gives comprehensive guidance to the collectors of intelligence (SIS and GCHQ). The Security Service contributes intelligence to meet some of the JIC requirements but, in line with our statutory functions, we formulate our own set of plans and priorities, which are approved by the Home Secretary.
Each year we submit our analysis of the various threats and our priorities for the future to the JIC, as part of the Permanent Secretary's Agency Performance Review. These are then examined by the JIC before being submitted to Ministers for approval. The JIC also reviews our performance against the previous year's plans and our success in meeting its requirements.
The UK Intelligence Community Online (new window) website sets out the roles, responsibility and organisation of the UK intelligence community in more detail.
