On September 18 voters in Scotland decide whether to stay in the Union or to separate from the rest of the United Kingdom. In the event of separation, the Scottish government proposes the creation of a new security service.
This new agency would inherit responsibility for protecting Scottish interests and securing the wellbeing and safety of Scottish citizens at home and abroad. In a complex and fast-changing world, this is a heavy responsibility. In my view the Scottish government proposals will not offer the level of protection and support currently provided by the highly sophisticated British security and intelligence agencies.
Our Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), which I had the privilege of leading as “C” from 2004 to 2009, was founded in 1909. It is the oldest, continuously active foreign intelligence service in the world. It is universally respected and, along with MI5 and GCHQ, represents a major asset for the United Kingdom.
The British security and intelligence services have protected our country through two world wars, the Cold War and the turbulent aftermath. The United Kingdom is an unusually open and tolerant society exceptionally dependent upon and vulnerable to events in the outside world.
But as we are now reminded, we live in unstable times. We must follow and understand jihadi extremism and related terrorist threats; deep-rooted regional instability; the policies and ambitions of authoritarian states; the ever-present threat of inter-state conflict, including now on our own continent on the borders of our Nato alliance. And all this against the background of rapid economic, demographic, social and technological change and fundamental shifts in the global balance of power.
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These uncertainties affect all of us; none of the UK’s constituent nations is immune from their effects. The same is true for all Nato and EU countries, big and small.
I know from 38 years’ professional experience that secret intelligence makes an essential contribution to our ability to survive and prosper in this world. Time and again reporting from secret agents has alerted us to terrorist plots against this country; to the thinking of authoritarian states and leaders who are working against our interests; to the development of new threats to our prosperity.
This secret intelligence does not arrive automatically. It has to be earned through independent, highly developed agent-running skills, investigative and technological prowess, exceptionally close and trusting relations with intelligence allies, historic partners in Europe (our intelligence relationship with France goes back a hundred years) and elsewhere, and our day-to-day links with dozens of foreign services that provide critical reporting on terrorist and other threats — reporting that helps to keep our people safe, wherever they may be.
These skills and our deep experience are admired by friends and feared by opponents. Above all, our friends admire the model of our security and intelligence community: our political independence and the way we work closely together while developing our specialised skills in three separate services.
SIS/MI6 and our intelligence community are, of course, the work of all the nations of the United Kingdom, built up over decades, work that simply cannot be replicated in just a few years to offer anything like the level of protection currently achieved by the UK as a whole.
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Throughout our history a leading role has been played by Scots or those like me — and indeed our great wartime chief, Sir Stewart Menzies — from Scottish families: my grandparents came to London from Penicuik, Midlothian. Deep British patriotism, pride in the outstanding history and achievements of the United Kingdom and commitment to the safety, prosperity and independence of our people have always been a feature of the British services. So it remains — and must continue to remain for the next hundred years and more.
Sir John McLeod Scarlett was Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service 2004-09 and is a member of the board of Times Newspapers Limited