What do MI6 actually do?

Today’s speaker was Stephen Dorril who provided a talk on what MI6 actually do.

There are three security agencies in the UK namely MI5, GHCQ and MI6. MI6 costs £1.6b to run per year, employs circa 3500 officers who collect intelligence.

Stephen discussed how officers are recruited, what training they undertake and 80% of their work is done sat in front of a computer. Stephen discussed how MI6 employ other groups e.g. the SAS to undertake their ‘dirty work’.

He went on to discuss traitors such as Filby and Blake and how Blair was mistaken into thinking Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

The talk was professionally researched, detailed and interesting.