UK Spy Agencies Loosen Nationality Rules to Boost Diversity

LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 17: A man walks over Vauxhall Bridge towards the MI6 headquarters
Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Britain’s spy agencies have reportedly loosened requirements surrounding nationality in order to increase diversity within their forces.

Secret Service agencies MI5, MI6, and GCHQ — representing domestic, foreign, and signals intelligence respectively — have all reportedly done away with restrictions on applicants in order to push for more diversity.

While it is claimed the move will allow the spy organisations to “challenge established ways of thinking” and allow “the very brightest and best people to join”, previous attempts at achieving diversity quotas in the sphere of UK defence have resulted in disaster.

According to a report by The Telegraph, spy agencies have dropped the requirement that a prospective employee is not only a British citizen, but has at least one parent who is or was a British citizen, a British subject, a British National (Overseas), a British Overseas Citizen or a British Protected Person.

Those who meanwhile had at least one parent who is or was a citizen of a European Economic Area country, a commonwealth nation, or the United States of America, would also pass the nationality requirement.

Under new regulations in place since Tuesday, no such requirement is in place, with it now being sufficient that an applicant can prove that they are a British citizen to be able to apply to join the intelligence services.

“It will mean more people will be able to apply for roles with GCHQ, MI5 and MI6, meaning we harness the best talent from British citizens across the UK,” an anonymous source reportedly told The Telegraph.

“It means all British citizens who apply for jobs in our agencies can now be assessed on their abilities and not where their parents are from,” they went on to say.

An official spokesman for the spy agencies echoed this sentiment, praising the move as allowing Britain’s secret services to be more diverse.

“We perform best in our mission to keep the nation safe and further the UK’s interests when we reflect the diversity of the country we serve,” the spokesman said.

“The parental nationality rule unnecessarily stopped brilliant people from applying to work with us,” they continued. “Removing this blanket rule means that all British citizens who apply for jobs in our agencies can now be assessed on their abilities and not where their parents are from.”

However, while UK intelligence seems extremely keen on pushing diversity, previous attempts by organisations within Britain’s defence sector to push multiculturalism have not always ended well.

For example, a recent attempt to make the country’s air force my diverse resulted in chaos after the military wing allegedly implemented a ban on hiring white male pilots, a move thought to be illegal by the organisation’s chief recruiter.

The revelation ultimately led to quite a lot of embarrassment for the RAF, which is said to be currently struggling to keep enough pilots to effectively field its arsenal of supersonic jets in the event of a war with the likes of Russia.

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