Tomorrow, Wednesday 5 November, the House of Lords International
Relations and Defence Committee will hold an evidence session
on the UK-US intelligence relationship.
The session will start at 3.30pm and will be available to
watch live or on demand at Parliament
TV or attend in person in Committee Room 2, Palace
of Westminster.
Giving evidence will be:
3.30pm
-
John O. Brennan, former Director at the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
-
Professor Sir David Omand, former Director at
GCHQ and currently Visiting Professor in the Department of War
Studies, King's College London; and
-
Dr Dafydd Townley, Senior Teaching Fellow,
University of Portsmouth.
Questions will include:
- How would you characterise the state and relevance of UK–US
intelligence cooperation today? What is working well, and where
are the main friction points?
- How resilient is the UK–US intelligence relationship to
changes in political leadership and priorities? How do you see
the relationship evolving over the next 5 to 10 years?
- Looking at the practical aspects of UK-US intelligence
collaboration—in what ways do shared intelligence assessments
influence policy decisions, particularly on major issues such as
Ukraine or China?
- In the face of emerging and non-traditional threats—such as
cyber-attacks, hybrid warfare, or disinformation (including from
non-state actors)—how have UK and US intelligence agencies
adjusted their cooperation? Are there specific areas where
coordination is difficult, and how are those difficulties being
addressed?
- How do you evaluate the long-term prospects of the UK-US
relationship, and what institutional or political measures might
be necessary to ensure that the partnership continues to be as
effective and trusted in the future as it has been historically?
