28 March 2012
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MI5 staff
to rise from 2,000 to 3,000 and extra money for Special Branch
In the run-up to the parliamentary debate (Wednesday,
25.2.04) on the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2002 the
Home Office announced - via the media - that MI5 (the internal
Security Service) is to increase in size from 2,000 to 3,000
officers over the next three to five years. The increase will
partly be composed of desk officers and partly of undercover
field agents targeted at the Muslim (and other) communities.
At the same time the government let it be known that the Special
Branch is to get an extra £3 million a year to set up eight
regional "intelligence cells" to work alongside MI5
(this follows the recommendations of a thematic report on future
organisation of Special Branches last year).
The Special Branch and MI5 both work in plainclothes gathering intelligence and "suspicions", recruiting informers and infiltrating suspect groups. Special Branch officers, drawn from the regular police forces, have the power of arrest, MI5 do not. Together they form Britain's "political police".
See: UK: Special
Branch more than doubles in size: Special report
Analysis
by Tony Bunyan on the Special Branch’s role in conducting
surveillance for MI5 and on public order
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