The Home Secretary has publicly confirmed the existence of the Joint State Threats Assessment Team.
JSTAT’s existence has only now been disclosed publicly by the home secretary, Priti Patel, in the face of what she described as “sustained and hostile activity” aimed at threatening UK national security. The Joint State Threats Assessment Team (JSTAT) was created in 2017 in response to the increased and evolving threat the UK faces from hostile states.
Home Secretary Priti Patel said:
“We continue to face a very real and serious threat from states who seek to undermine and destabilise this country to pursue their own agendas. It is vital that we continue to gain a deeper understanding of the wide-range of threats we face in order to take robust action to protect our national security. JSTAT has enhanced our capabilities and understanding of the state-based threats we face and will continue to do so in order to protect us at home and abroad.”
A Government statement on this reads as follows:
“The decision to publicly avow JSTAT has been taken in order to maximise its utility to the national security community, enabling greater engagement with stakeholders, industry and academics. It will also allow for broader communication of the threats to government departments and agencies, as well as partners across the private and charitable sectors, ensuring they have access to information to better protect themselves.
Like other independent assessment bodies, including the joint terrorism analysis centre, JSTAT reports to a governance board comprising senior officials from across the UK intelligence community and wider government departments. The Director General of MI5 has ultimate responsibility for the organisation. The government continues to take steps to counter state-based threats. This includes an ongoing review of relevant legislation relating to hostile state activity, including the Official Secrets Acts, to assess whether additional powers are required.”
According to MI5:
“The Joint State Threats Assessment Team (JSTAT) is a cross-departmental assessment organisation that provides analysis on the hybrid state threats to the UK and UK interests. We assess the national security threat posed by activities such as espionage, assassination, interference in our democracy, threats to the UK’s economic security and the UK’s people and assets overseas.
JSTAT provides assessment for a wide range of HMG departmental customers, focusing on centrally-agreed priorities as well as direct tasking from policy and intelligence customers. JSTAT officers come from a wide range of government departments, bringing a diverse set of skills and understanding. Like other assessment bodies, including the Joint Terrorism Assessment Centre, JSTAT reports to a Governance Board comprising senior officials from across the UK intelligence community and wider policy departments, with the Director General of MI5 having ultimate responsibility for the organisation.”
JSTAT reports to a governance board made up of senior officials from the intelligence agencies and other government departments.
Much welcomed news.
Finally we can start to reverse the social subversion from post WW2- present day???
Maybe we can expose some truths aswell….
With you on that…a return to a little more communications discipline would do a lot of good.
If there was a time for this unit to be on high alert, it’s now. When the World is at its most vulnerable is the time when those who wish us harm will strike!
China What fools have we all been about this country The rise of China in the last 30 or so years has been to say the least amazing Now my 2 penneth This was planed from the outset Just think of all the outbreaks that have stemed from that country in that time It was all planed so that the Chinese Race will become masters of the world Whilst the Western Economies and for that mater others as well put all there eggs in one basket becouse the labour cost were so cheep we have become reliant on China to… Read more »
They did have a lot of face masks ready! They seemed to be well prepared, I think!
Interesting. If the Security Service is finally devoting more resources to Counter Espionage and other state threats that is a good thing as for too long it has been mostly CT orientated, and in the meantime Russian, Chinese and other countries spies have been increasing. I’m hoping this is real progress with additional resources and not just typical PR window dressing to impress as elements of other organisations, such as DI have provided this sort of thing for decades. Detail of its budget and headcount would be interesting reading. Buried in the article is a brief reference to expanding the… Read more »
As soon as the Wall we came down our side switched off. Comes from having nobody with any real world experience running the show.
It is gong to be impossible to judge the effectiveness of a initiative that must remain shrouded from public overview. One point: The countries attracting immigrants at nearly historic levels are all founded on principles of democracy, not travelling in the other direction. It is our strength but also an observable growing weakness; western countries are not homogenous as politics demonstrates daily and the U.K.’s once famed unanimity about a set of defining values is now more likely to be mocked by substantial portions of its own population. Our known enemies are not states or non-state players known for their… Read more »