About us
The National Security Secretariat provides coordination on security and intelligence issues of strategic importance across government. Separately, the Joint Intelligence Organisation produces independent all-source assessments on issues of national security and foreign policy importance. By supporting the work of the National Security Council and the Joint Intelligence Committee respectively, they provide advice on these issues to the Prime Minister and other senior ministers.
Responsibilities
The National Security Secretariat is responsible for:
- providing policy advice to the National Security Council, where ministers discuss national security issues at a strategic level
- coordinating and developing foreign and defence policy across government
- coordinating policy, ethical and legal issues across the intelligence community, managing its funding and priorities, and dealing with the Intelligence and Security Committee which calls it to account
- developing effective protective security policies and capabilities for government
- improving the UK’s resilience to respond to and recover from emergencies, and maintaining facilities for the effective co-ordination of government response to crises
- providing strategic leadership for cyber security in the UK, in line with the National Cyber Security Strategy
The Joint Intelligence Organisation is responsible for:
- providing all-source intelligence assessments for the Prime Minister, the National Security Council and policy makers across government which assess threats to the UK and UK interests overseas
- giving early warning of the development of direct and indirect threats and opportunities in those fields to British interests or policies and to the international community as a whole
- maintaining oversight of the assessment of intelligence across government, encouraging professional standards and best practice to improve government’s analytical capability as a whole
Who we are
The National Security Secretariat is headed by Stephen Lovegrove, the National Security Adviser.
The Joint Intelligence Organisation is headed by Simon Gass, Chair of the Joint Intelligence Committee and Professional Head of Intelligence Analysis.
Both the National Security Secretariat and the Joint Intelligence Organisation are based in London.