Director of GCHQ

{{Short description|Head of the UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)}} __NOTOC__ The '''Director of the Government Communications Headquarters''' is the highest-ranking official in the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), a British intelligence agency that specialises in signals intelligence, information assurance and cryptography. The director is a Permanent Secretary, and appointed by and reports to the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.<ref name="CivServ">{{cite web |url=http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/about/leadership/permanent-secretaries |title=Permanent Secretaries |publisher=Civil Service }}</ref><ref name=GCHQWork>{{cite news|url=http://www.gchq.gov.uk/how_we_work/running_the_business/oversight/Pages/Ministerial-responsibility.aspx |title=Ministerial responsibility |work=GCHQ |access-date=28 February 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131214160629/http://www.gchq.gov.uk/how_we_work/running_the_business/oversight/Pages/Ministerial-responsibility.aspx |archive-date=14 December 2013 }}</ref>

Though the prime minister of the United Kingdom has ultimate responsibility within the British government for security matters and the intelligence agencies, the Foreign Secretary has day to day ministerial responsibility for GCHQ.<ref name=GCHQWork/> The Director of GCHQ is also a permanent member of the United Kingdom's National Security Council and the Cabinet Office's Joint Intelligence Committee.<ref name=GCHQWork/>

The role of the Director of GCHQ was outlined by the Intelligence Services Act 1994, in which the director is described as "...responsible for the efficiency of GCHQ".<ref name="Jones2012">{{cite book|author=Philip Jones|title=Public Law and Human Rights Statutes 2012–2013|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mGdtWaCrjZwC&pg=PA125|date=17 August 2012|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-63390-1|pages=125–}}</ref> The director's role is to ensure:

{{Quotation|(a) That there are arrangements for securing that no information is obtained by GCHQ except so far as necessary for the proper discharge of its functions and that no information is disclosed by it except so far as necessary for that purpose or for the purpose of any criminal proceedings; and (b) that GCHQ does not take any action to further the interests of any United Kingdom political party|Intelligence Services Act 1994<ref name="Jones2012"/>||}}

The GCHQ director has become more publicly visible in the wake of the 2013 global surveillance disclosures. Sir Arthur Bonsall, director from 1973 to 1978, was the first director to speak publicly about his career at GCHQ when he was interviewed by the BBC in September 2013,<ref name="BBC Interview">{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-23878101 | title=Lifting the veil of secrecy on the intelligence service | publisher=BBC News Online| date=8 September 2013 | access-date=8 September 2013 | author=Steve Knibbs}}</ref> and Sir Iain Lobban testified before parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee in the wake of the disclosures in November 2013.<ref name=BBCNov13>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24847399|title=UK intelligence work defends freedom, say spy chiefs|date=7 November 2014|publisher=BBC News Online|access-date=24 October 2014}}</ref> The director from 1989 to 1996, Sir John Adye, had previously spoken as a witness at the inquest into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in February 2008 to deny that GCHQ had any involvement in the tape recordings that led to the "Camillagate" or "Squidgygate" scandals.<ref name=BBCFeb08>{{cite news|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7268892.stm|title=GCHQ 'did not tap Diana's phone'|date=28 February 2014|publisher=BBC News Online|access-date=24 October 2014}}</ref>

Soon after taking on the role in 2014, Robert Hannigan authored under his own name an article in the ''Financial Times'' on the topic of internet surveillance.<ref name=ft-20141103rh>{{cite news |url=https://www.ft.com/content/c89b6c58-6342-11e4-8a63-00144feabdc0 |title=The web is a terrorist's command-and-control network of choice |author=Robert Hannigan |newspaper=Financial Times |date=3 November 2014 |access-date=3 November 2014}}</ref><ref name=ft-20141103>{{cite news |url=https://www.ft.com/content/4a35c0b2-636e-11e4-9a79-00144feabdc0 |title=Tech groups aid terror, says UK spy chief |author=Sam Jones and Murad Ahmed |newspaper=Financial Times |date=3 November 2014 |access-date=3 November 2014}}</ref>

==List of GCHQ directors== {| class="wikitable" border="1" style="text-align:left" |- ! {{abbr|No.|Number}} ! Image !! Name !! Term

|- | rowspan="2" | 1 || 75px || Admiral Sir Hugh Sinclair || 1921–1939 |- | || Cmdr Alastair Denniston || 1921–1942<br>Operational head |- | 2 || || Sir Edward Travis || 1942–1952 |- | 3 || || Sir Eric Jones|| 1952–1960 |- | 4 || || Sir Clive Loehnis || 1960–1964 |- | 5 || || Sir Leonard Hooper || 1965–1973 |- | 6 || || Sir Arthur Bonsall || 1973–1978 |- | 7 || || Sir Brian John Maynard Tovey || 1978–1983 |- | 8 || || Sir Peter Marychurch || 1983–1989 |- | 9 || || Sir John Anthony Adye || 1989–1996 |- | 10 || 75px || Sir David Omand || 1996–1997 |- | 11 || 75px || Sir Kevin Tebbit || 1998 |- | 12 || 75px || Sir Francis Richards || 1998–2003 |- | 13 || || Sir David Pepper || 2003–2008 |- | 14 || || Sir Iain Lobban || 2008–2014 |- | 15 || 75px || Robert Hannigan || 2014–2017 |- | 16 || || Sir Jeremy Fleming || 2017–2023 |- | 17 || || Anne Keast-Butler || 2023–present |}

==References== {{reflist}}

==Further reading== * {{cite book|last= Aldrich|first=Robert J.|year=2011|title=GCHQ|location=London|publisher=Harper Press|isbn=978-0-007312-665}}

==External links== *{{Official|http://www.gchq.gov.uk/}}