Intelligence Agency Heads Face MPs' Questions

Who Are Britain's Spy Chiefs?

Updated: 11:30am UK, Thursday 07 November 2013

All three of Britain's spy chiefs are to appear together in public at a televised Parliamentary committee for the first time. This is who they are:

:: Sir Iain Lobban,  director of GCHQ (The Government Communications Headquarters)

A languages graduate from the University of Leeds in who joined GCHQ in 1983, Sir Iain Lobban has been in post since 2008.

He moved to the GCHQ board in 2001 where he oversaw the intelligence agency's move to its new headquarters in Gloucestershire.

Sir Iain, an Everton fan who is married with a daughter, was knighted in the 2013 New Year's honours list for services to national security.

He has recently spoken to say that GCHQ needs to recruit more socially awkward people like the code-breaker Alan Turing.

In a speech at Leeds University last year he said: "I strongly believe [the] agency needs the widest range of skills possible if it is to be successful, and to deny itself talent just because the person with the talent doesn't conform to a social stereotype is to starve itself of what it needs to thrive."

He succeeded Sir David Pepper in July 2008

GCHQ provides communications information to the British Government and Armed Forces.

It monitors communications and electronic data to defend Britain and British interests against cyberattacks, international and domestic terrorism, organised crime, and the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

GCHQ identifies cyber espionage and gathers intelligence to better understand new and emerging threats.

It has partnerships with MI5, MI6 and a range of international allies, primarily the USA, to further UK foreign policy.

:: Andrew Parker, director general of the British Security Service (MI5)

Andrew Parker has worked for MI5 for 30 years and has been head of the service since April 2013.

He became director of international terrorism for the Security Service in 2005 and led the response to the July 7 London transport system bombings.

The University of Cambridge graduate was made deputy director general of the service in 2007 and took the top slot when Sir Jonathan Evans left in April this year.

In his first speech since taking over he warned of the damage the CIA whistleblower Edward Snowden had caused by leaking classified information.

Mr Parker said that Snowden had handed a gift to terrorists.

MI5, the British Security Service, is mainly concerned with the protection of Britain's national security, Parliamentary democracy, its economic interests, counter-terrorism and counter-espionage within the UK.

It was established in 1909 as the Secret Service Bureau; during the First World War it was renamed the Directorate of Military Intelligence Section 5, giving it the popular name of MI5.

MI5 investigates organisations and individuals it suspects pose a threat to British security, and advises the Government and other organisations to keep them informed of the threats.

:: Sir John Sawers, chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6)

Sir John joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1977 and was British Permanent Representative to the UN from 2007 and 2009.

Sir John, who studied physics and philosophy at the University of Nottingham, has been head of MI6  since November 2009, taking over from Sir John Scarlett.

He was foreign affairs adviser to then prime minister Tony Blair between January 1999 and summer 2001.

He is the only serving member of MI6 who is officially named in public.

The Secret Intelligence Service collects Britain's foreign intelligence. The service is based at Vauxhall Cross in London.

It collects secret intelligence and mounts covert operations overseas in support of British Government objectives regarding defence and foreign policies and in support of the prevention or detection of serious crime.

MI6 tackles terrorism using assessed intelligence and preventing people from becoming terrorists; and protecting critical national infrastructure and crowded places.

The organisation also obtains secret intelligence on the efforts of foreign states to acquire nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

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