UK employs 10766 spies
01 March 1994
For the first time the number of people employed by the UK's security and intelligence agencies has been published. The figures given are: MI5 (internal security) 2,235; MI6 (overseas intelligence; espionage) 2,303 and GCHQ (the agency which carries out surveillance of electronic and telephone traffic) 6,228. The numbers will reduce next year by 2.3% (giving MI5: 2,189; MI6: 2,251; GCHQ: 6,076). The total expenditure on the three agencies is £881 million in 1994/95. This total includes the cost of completing MI5's new headquarters at Thames House on the north bank of the Thames (£265.6 million), and the Vauxhall Cross headquarters of MI6 on the south bank (£93.2 million). The figures were provided with little fanfare, in the Treasury supply estimates paper (Class XIX).