ON THE 'OFFENSIVE'
- SIS and GCHQ's intelligence work encompasses both 'coverage' and 'effects'. 'Coverage' is the collection of information (or acquisition of information from allied intelligence services) by the Agencies, whereas 'effects' describes the Agencies' engagement in activities which have real-life outcomes. ***
The roles of SIS and GCHQ
SIS is the UK's foreign human intelligence (HUMINT) agency. Areas of work that SIS undertakes include:
- cultivating and maintaining agents who are in a position to pass on secret information; and
- obtaining and sharing information which our allies have gathered on China.
GCHQ is the UK's signals intelligence (SIGINT) agency. Areas of work that GCHQ undertakes include:
- applying selectors to emails obtained by bulk interception;
- intercepting material transmitted over military communications systems;
- covertly accessing computer systems in order to obtain the information they contain; and
- sharing information with our allies' intelligence agencies.
Allocation of effort
- Operational effort within SIS and GCHQ is broken down into different 'missions' (as explained in the chapter on HMG Resourcing). As at 2020, SIS allocated ***% of its overall operational effort to China and GCHQ allocated ***% of its operational effort to China.[1] The China mission is then further broken down into the different requirements' on China which the Government has set for SIS and GCHQ.
- In evidence in 2020, SIS broke down its operational effort in relation to China as ***
- ***
- ***
- ***[2]
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