The the number of people MI5 is seeing involved in terrorist-related activity in the UK has increased to at least 2,000, the head of the security service has said.
The director general of the security service Jonathan Evans was speaking at the Society of Editors’ ‘A Matter of Trust’ conference in Manchester, on November 5.<br><br>He recalled that his predecessor, Eliza Manningham-Buller, pointed out that this country was facing an increasing threat from Al Qaida-inspired terrorism: "When she spoke, MI5 had identified around 1,600 individuals who we believed posed a direct threat to national security and public safety, because of their support for terrorism. That figure today would be at least 2,000. This growth, which has driven the increasingly strong and coordinated government response, is partly because our coverage of the extremist networks is now more thorough. But it is also because there remains a steady flow of new recruits to the extremist cause."<br><br>He did warn that spying remains an issue: "This year, yet again, there have been high levels of covert activity by foreign intelligence organisations in our country. Since the end of the Cold War we have seen no decrease in the numbers of undeclared Russian intelligence officers in the UK – at the Russian Embassy and associated organisations conducting covert activity in this country. So despite the Cold War ending nearly two decades ago, my Service is still expending resources to defend the UK against unreconstructed attempts by Russia, China and others, to spy on us.
As for recruitment, Mr Evans said that by 2011, the Service expects to have 4000 staff, and one-quarter of them outside London headquarters. He reported a lack of female applicants compared with the previous decade.
Speech in full on the MI5 website:
