John
03-30-2010, 05:45 PM
MI5 is laying off an ageing generation of veteran intelligence officers who are struggling to come to terms with the internet age.
The security service is launching an unprecedented round of redundancies to improve the overall level of computer skills among its staff.
It is laying off older employees and hiring new intelligence officers and support staff with a better command of information technology, reports the Daily Telegraph. The move has reportedly set tongues wagging in Whitehall, with civil servants joking about a "James Bond generation" of elderly spies being put out to pasture because they can't use the internet and don't understand the world of Twitter or Facebook.
The plan was disclosed by Jonathan Evans, the director-general of MI5, who told a Parliamentary committee that he was concerned his agency's IT skills were not up to scratch.
"I think some of the staff perhaps aren't quite the ones that we will want for the future," Mr Evans told the Intelligence and Security Committee.
As a result, a programme of "both voluntary and compulsory redundancies" was being introduced.
Whitehall officials said the MI5 redundancy programme was aimed at altering the skills profile of the organisation and increasing the number of its staff that can be deployed on active operations.
MI5 currently has around 3,500 officers and is on course to have 4,100 by next year, double its size in 2001. Many of the new recruits are in their 20s and 30s.
The security service is launching an unprecedented round of redundancies to improve the overall level of computer skills among its staff.
It is laying off older employees and hiring new intelligence officers and support staff with a better command of information technology, reports the Daily Telegraph. The move has reportedly set tongues wagging in Whitehall, with civil servants joking about a "James Bond generation" of elderly spies being put out to pasture because they can't use the internet and don't understand the world of Twitter or Facebook.
The plan was disclosed by Jonathan Evans, the director-general of MI5, who told a Parliamentary committee that he was concerned his agency's IT skills were not up to scratch.
"I think some of the staff perhaps aren't quite the ones that we will want for the future," Mr Evans told the Intelligence and Security Committee.
As a result, a programme of "both voluntary and compulsory redundancies" was being introduced.
Whitehall officials said the MI5 redundancy programme was aimed at altering the skills profile of the organisation and increasing the number of its staff that can be deployed on active operations.
MI5 currently has around 3,500 officers and is on course to have 4,100 by next year, double its size in 2001. Many of the new recruits are in their 20s and 30s.