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security against a range of threats, including terrorism, espionage, weapons of mass destruction (WMD) proliferation, and threats to the economy and for giving support to law enforcement agencies. M15 focuses on covertly organized threats. A major preoccupation had been combating Irish Republican Army (IRA) terrorism in Northern Ireland and Great Britain. According to the M15 Web site, this is still a concern, focusing on dissident groups that have rejected the 1998 accords. MI5 has no police powers (such as arrest or detention) and is empowered to protect British interests overseas. M15 uses human agents, communications intercepts, and eavesdropping to collect intelligence. M15 apparently had success in recruiting senior IRA officials as informants, much to the embarrassment of the IRA’s political arm, Sinn Fein, when these were revealed in 2005 and 2008.

In the 1990s, M15 won Parliament’s approval to expand its mandate to include organized crime, narcotics, immigration, and benefits fraud. The law provides authority to monitor telephones and mail (both of which require warrants from the home secretary) and to enter homes and offices of organized-crime suspects. M15 operates under the authority of the home secretary, for whom there is no precise U.S. equivalent. (The Home Office is responsible for police, immigration, drug enforcement, and other matters.) The Security Service Acts of 1989 and 1996 govern M15. In 2004, the home secretary announced a planned 50 percent increase in M15 with the addition of one thousand new analysts to respond to increasing concerns about terrorism. One area of emphasis is Arabic and South Asian languages. In 2006, M15 came under criticism for its performance prior to the July 7, 2005, attacks on the London Underground. M15 apparently had the leader of the attack and one other bomber under surveillance in 2003 but dropped it after coming to the conclusion that they were not immediate security threats. An investigation by the Intelligence and Security Committee released in May 2006 upheld this decision. This report also noted that the number of “primary investigative targets” in the United Kingdom had gone from 250 in 2001, to 500 in 2004, and to 800 in 2005, and increases on this magnitude meant that only a fraction of these individuals could actually be investigated. In November 2006, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, who had recently stepped down as the head of M15, said there were 1,600 known active militants being tracked.

The director general of the Security Service also oversees the joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC). JTAC is staffed by officers from M15, M16, GCHQ, and the Defence Intelligence Staff and is responsible for counterterrorism intelligence, much like the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) in the United States.

M16 is also known as the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS). Its activities are governed by the Intelligence Services Act of 1994, which also directs GCHQ. MI6 is charged with the collection [by means of human intelligence (HUMINT) and technical intelligence (TECHINT)] and production of “information relating to the activities or intentions of persons outside the British Islands.” It also performs other related tasks—a legal echo of the vague U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) charter in the National Security Act. MI6 comes under the authority of the foreign secretary (equivalent to the U.S. secretary of state). Like M15, M16 has entered a period of growth, particularly in response to terrorism and WMD. According to British press estimates. M16 shrank by some 25 percent during the 1990s in the aftermath of the cold war. As of 2008, MI6 has a Web site to explain its role and to broaden its recruiting base. Interestingly, the Web site is available in French, Spanish. Russian, Arabic, and Chinese.

GCHQis the British signals intelligence (SIGINT) agency, also operating under the foreign secretary. It is the British equivalent of the National Security Agency (NSA), with which it enjoys a close working relationship. Like NSA, GCHQhas facilities at home and overseas.