MI6

»Piccadilly!« Frank screamed as his friend with the oxblood eyes made for the Millenium Bridge. »Just don't go to Vauxhall Cross!«

Piccadilly turned back to Frank and waved.

MI6: Secret Intelligence Service

Vauxhall Cross MI6 HQ

MI6, the Secret Intelligence Service, came into being in 1911 to undertake espionage activities overseas. Today its role is defined by the Intelligence Services Act 1994 as »to obtain and provide information relating to the actions or intentions of persons outside the British Islands, and perform other tasks relating to these in relation to the interests of national security«.

The SIS is located at Vauxhall Cross in London, and its chief since September 1994 has been David Spedding, who previously specialised in the Middle East. MI6 employed 2,303 staff in March 1994, and has been reported to have an annual budget of £150M, although these numbers can be expected to decrease with the end of the cold war.

The focus of MI6's activities has been the Russian threat, but this has now been cut back significantly, and its operational effort in the CIS has been reduced by two-thirds. It has been reported that the Russian intelligence services have been renewing their efforts to post officers to London, and in May 1996 tit-for-tat expulsions of four embassy staff each took place.

The Intelligence Services Act 1994 (SW9311) defines the role of MI6 as;

(a) to obtain and provide information relating to the
actions or intentions of persons outside the British
Islands; and (b) to perform other tasks relating to the
actions or intentions of such persons...[in relation to]
the interests of national security, with particular
reference to defence and foreign policies...the interests
of the economic well-being of the UK...or in support of the
prevention or detection of serious crime.

The Act brought into existence the parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee which oversees the »expenditure, administration and policy« of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ (SW9501). Of its nine members, five are former Tory ministers.

David Spedding took over as chief of MI6 (SW9403) from Colin McColl in September 1994. His agency's shrinking workforce (SW9403) was put at 2,303 in 1994, with a budget of £150M.

The Russian threat no longer preoccupies SIS as it once did, and two-thirds of its activity in this area (DT960329) (TM960329) has been eliminated. In 1996 there has been some resurgence in activity, with the Russian intelligence agencies reported to have resumed their efforts to post agents in Britain. In March 1996 an alleged British spy (DT960304) was thrown out by the Russians, and this was followed in May by the expulsion (DT960520) (TM960518) of four more diplomats by each side. And in January 1996, spy Rosemary Sharpe (DT960130) was outed by Der Spiegel, which said that she had paid three German intelligence officers for information on Russian military hardware. The German agents had not passed the money on to their superiors, and were being investigated for corruption.

Performance related pay is now in force (DT960520) for both MI6 and MI5. It is intended to ensure that officers »have a clear understanding of what they are expected to achieve.«

Should they not achieve their goals to the extent of ending up unemployed, MI6 officers can now take disputes (DT960724) (TM960724) to an industrial tribunal. This follows the case of former agent Richard Tomlinson who was dismissed following a negative appraisal by his personnel manager. He claimed (ST960331) the attempts to prevent him taking his case to an industrial tribunal were designed to conceal poor management at MI6.

MI6 stole submarine tracking technology from the French Navy (ST960616) by setting up a front company to obtain information from an engineer at Brest naval base. MI6 spies against Britain's European partners under operation »Jet Stream«.

In August 1996 Norman MacSween, the 48-year-old chief of MI6's Moscow station, was embarassingly exposed (ST960804) on Russian TV when he attempted to make contact with one of his agents, Platon Obukhov, who confessed to spying for the British. MacSween's career is over, and the agent he was running will probably be shot.