MI5 operating in new era of terror and state threats, says chief

Sir Ken McCallum gave his address at MI5's headquarters

MI5 is contending with near-record volumes of terror investigations and fast-rising state threats, the intelligence agency's boss has warned.

The security service is operating in a "new era", Sir Ken McCallum said in an annual speech, forcing the "biggest shift in MI5's mission since 9/11".

He said state threats from Russia, China and Iran are escalating, with MI5 seeing a 35% increase in the number of individuals its investigating in the last year.

Sir Ken added that Chinese state actors in particular present a daily national security threat to the UK, revealing that MI5 had intervened operationally to disrupt Chinese activity of national security concern in the past week.

Addressing a row over the collapse of a case involving alleged spying on behalf of China in the UK, Sir Ken said the alleged activity was disrupted by MI5 and that it was "frustrating when prosecutions fall through".

The government and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) are facing questions over the collapse of the case.

In the wide-ranging speech, Sir Ken talked about MI5 operating in "a new era" with terrorism remaining an "ever-present threat".

He revealed MI5 and police had disrupted 19 late-stage attack plots and intervened in "many hundreds of developing threats" since the start of 2020.

The "aggregate scale of the terrorist threat remains huge", he said, explaining how his teams were mostly focused on individuals or small groups, rather than larger established networks.

One in five of the 232 terrorism arrests last year were of children under 17, he said.

He also said al-Qaeda and Islamic State group were "once again becoming more ambitious" and "taking advantage of instability overseas to gain firmer footholds".

Speaking about threats from state actors including China, Russian and Iran, the director-general said as well as methods of espionage, state actors are "descending into ugly methods MI5 is more used to seeing in our terrorism casework".

State threats include espionage against the UK's Parliament, universities and critical infrastructure.

He warned that would-be "proxy" actors are viewed by Russia as disposable, saying "when you're caught, you'll be abandoned".

While on Iran, he also said MI5 had tracked more than 20 potentially lethal Iran-backed plots in the last 12 months.

Meanwhile, referring to a court battle with the BBC about false evidence given by the agency to three courts, Sir Ken said MI5 had been "justly criticised" by the courts.

"I want to affirm, on record, the importance MI5 attaches to accountability and oversight," he said, adding: "Part of why MI5 exists is to defend our national way of life - a way of life which includes the checks and balances of rigorous independent oversight".

The director-general also spoke about Artificial Intelligence (AI), saying while the technology brings immense benefits, it would be reckless to ignore the potential for it to cause harm.

Sir Ken ended the speech by paying tribute to the "quiet service" of "talented, selfless, often courageous MI5 people" and the work they do behind the scenes.