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The Threats

Emergency Procedures

What You Can Do

What Government is Doing

Departments & Agencies

Legislation

Border Control

Targeting Terrorist Funds

Infrastructure Protection

Resilience & Contingency Planning

Press Releases & Publications

Frequently Asked Questions

Departments & Agencies

The Home Office holds primary responsibility for counter-terrorism within the UK.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is responsible for countering the terrorist threat against UK interests overseas.

Security Service offers detailed security advice for businesses, organisations and anyone with responsibility for the safety of others.

Assessing and countering the terrorist threat

the police | military support to the police |
other law enforcement agencies | the Security Service (M15) |
other security and intelligence agencies

Preventing and responding to a terrorist attack

Cabinet committees | Sir David Omand | the Civil Contingencies Secretariat |
local authorities | the emergency services

The Home Office

The Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, is responsible for the domestic security of the UK because he has direct responsibility for counter-terrorist policy and legislation, the police, and the security and intelligence work of the Security Service (MI5).

The Home Secretary also has a co-ordinating role. As chair of the Cabinet committees on terrorism and related issues, he supervises all counter-terrorism work across Government, to bring together the supporting work of Ministers in other departments. Through these committees he also oversees work across Government on 'resilience and contingency planning', i.e. preventing and responding to major crises, including terrorism.

Hazel Blears has the responsibility of deputising for the Home Secretary on terrorism and resilience.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO)

As the UK Government department responsible for foreign affairs, the Foreign Office, as it is commonly known, works with foreign governments to help ensure that countries around the world have stepped-up law enforcement and intelligence efforts, and co-operates with international partners to track down and freeze terrorist funds.

It also offers detailed country-specific advice to travellers preparing to go abroad on the Foreign Office website.

Assessing and countering the terrorist threat

The police

Police on both the national and local level are responsible for investigating terrorism, as part of their role of investigating, detecting and preventing crime. They investigate criminal offences, and decide whether or not to make arrests. In consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service, they also decide whether or not to bring charges.

The police work closely in conjunction with the Home Office, other law enforcement agencies, and the security and intelligence agencies in these regards.

The Commander of the Metropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist Branch is appointed by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) as the national co-ordinator for the investigation of acts of terrorism.

The Home Office gives the police the powers and funding they need to do their job. But day to day policing - such as deciding to make arrests and how to allocate officers so as best to protect the public from a range of potential threats - is entirely the independent responsibility of each force's Chief Constable. This is part of the separation between operational and political (or executive) responsibility.

You can find more information on the work of the police, and related organisations like the National Criminal Intelligence Service, on the UK police website.

Police funding

We have made a substantial financial investment in police funding over the past three years, and will continue this investment over the next three years. Police numbers are now at a record high, with 129,600 police officers in England and Wales (as of March 2002).

These funds - representing an increase of £1.5 billion by 2006 - are for all police activities, not just counter-terrorism. While we cannot provide details all of counter-terrorist resources, for security reasons, some of the specific counter-terrorism grants we have allocated since the September 11 attacks are as follows:

We gave the Metropolitan Police £49 million in 2002/2003, specifically for counter-terrorism purposes, and will finance them with an additional £62 million outside their general grant in 2003/2004.
We provided the regional police forces of England and Wales (excluding the Met) with £12 million in specific counter-terrorist funding in 2002/2003, and will continue this funding into 2003/2004.

Military support to the police

The military have specialised equipment and expertise - such as bomb disposal - that the police may sometimes call upon in support of their operations. It is the judgement of the police as to when military support is needed and what form it should take, and where and how it should be deployed.

This is known as Military Aid to the Civil Power (MACP), and is normally requested by a Chief Officer of Police. These requests are made via the Home Office, and we then seek formal agreement from the Ministry of Defence (MOD).

Most commonly, the police will request specific equipment for specialist functions. However, if the police assess the need for it, the Home Secretary can agree general military support. This was the case during the police operation at Heathrow in February 2003. There, as always, the police operational commander decided, with the military commander, what troops and equipment were deployed, and where and how.

The deployment of troops abroad will not affect this support to the police.

Other law enforcement agencies

Immigration and Customs officers also have an important supporting role in countering the threat from terrorism, particularly in the area of border control (see 'Border Control'). More information on their work can be found on the Immigration website and the Customs website.

The Security Service (MI5)

The Security Service or MI5 is responsible for all matters that bear on UK national security, and collects intelligence about security threats, including terrorism. Using covert methods to obtain information about target organisations, MI5 develops detailed knowledge over time about their key personalities, infrastructure, plans and capabilities.

The particular role of the Security Service (MI5) is to:

Investigate threats by gathering, analysing and assessing intelligence
Counter specific threats by taking action, where appropriate in conjunction with others
Advise Government and others as necessary on the nature of the threat, and on relevant protective security measures

The Security Service has no executive powers. Cases likely to result in prosecution are co-ordinated closely with the police, or Customs and Excise, who take the necessary action.

The Director General of the Security Service, Eliza Manningham-Buller, reports personally to the Home Secretary, who is responsible to Parliament for their actions. Only the Home Secretary can authorise warrants allowing the Security Service to carry out intrusive surveillance.

For more information can be found on the M15 website.

Other security and intelligence agencies

The Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) is responsible for the collection of secret intelligence overseas on behalf of the British Government. Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) collects intelligence and information for Government departments and law enforcement agencies. The Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, has ministerial responsibility for both these agencies.

For a full explanation of how the Security Service fits in with the rest of the security and intelligence agencies, see the booklet, 'The National Intelligence Machinery'.

Security and Intelligence Agency Funding

While we cannot provide a breakdown of funding to the individual agencies, for security reasons, the national Security and Intelligence Agencies overall received funding in excess of £990 million in 2002/2003 and will receive more than £1099 million in 2003/2004.

This funding covers all the work carried out by the agencies, not just counter-terrorism, and represents an increase of 6.4% annually - the highest sustained growth since the end of the cold war.

Preventing and responding to a terrorist attack

This is commonly called 'resilience and contingency planning'.

Cabinet Committees

The Home Secretary chairs three Cabinet Committees, in which the relevant Government ministers plan both the prevention and the response to a terrorist attack in the UK.

DOP(IT)(T), which oversees work to strengthen our defence against terrorism;
DOP(IT)(R), which works to build our resilience and ability to manage the consequences of major emergencies;
The Civil Contingencies Committee, which meets in times of crisis to manage our response.

These committees are made up of Ministers from key government departments, as well as representatives from the relevant emergency services and the devolved administrations.

Sir David Omand

Sir David Omand is the Security and Intelligence Co-ordinator, and Permanent Secretary to the Cabinet Office. He is the senior civil servant responsible for co-ordinating policy on security, intelligence and contingency planning issues across Government, and dealing with risks and major emergencies as they arise.

This includes responsibility for the Single Intelligence Account, which funds the intelligence and security agencies.

The Civil Contingencies Secretariat (CCS)

The Civil Contingencies Secretariat was established in July 2001 at the Cabinet Office to improve the resilience of central Government and the UK.

Resilience is defined as our ability to handle any disruptive challenges that can lead to or result in crisis, such as floods or fuel crises - not just terrorism.

The CCS is a specific unit with responsibility for emergency planning and for assessing, anticipating and preventing future crises. It drives the progress of all Government departments involved in responding to emergencies.

The CCS reports to the Prime Minister through Sir David Omand. It publishes up-to-date information on civil contingencies on the UK Resilience website.

Local Authorities

Local authorities do not have a direct involvement in counter terrorism, but they have an important role in emergency planning and dealing with the consequences of all emergencies, including those arising from terrorist attack.

The ability of local authorities to respond to a major crisis has always been a key component in the resilience work of the UK as a whole. We maintain close contact with local emergency services and other local responders to provide formal guidance and funding, to ensure that local arrangements coincide with national policy, and to improve communication with face-to-face workshops and training.

We are also preparing new Civil Contingencies legislation, as part of a recommendation by local emergency planning communities, and have issued proposals for a new Civil Contingencies Bill that will better clarify roles and responsibilities and replace out-of-date legislation with more modern equivalents (see the UK Resilience website).

In addition, we gave a civil defence grant of £19 million in 2002/2003 to local authorities, a third more than the previous year. This is just part of what local authorities spend on resilience.

And we are establishing regional resilience teams similar to the London Resilience Forum, but on a smaller scale, to enhance regional civil contingency planning against terrorist threats and other major emergencies.

The emergency services

The police, fire, and ambulance services have a lead role in responding to any terrorist attack or major crisis, with the immediate decisions on the ground being taken by senior commanding officers within those services. More information is available on the UK Resilience website.