Andrew Parker (MI5 officer)


Sir Andrew David Parker was the Director General of MI5, the Security Service, which is the United Kingdom's domestic security and counter-intelligence agency.

Biography

Parker was educated at Churchill College, Cambridge where he studied natural sciences. He joined the Security Service in 1983. He was seconded to HM Customs and Excise as Director Intelligence in 1999 before becoming Director, International Terrorism at the Security Service in February 2005. After leading the Security Service's response to the 7 July 2005 London bombings and the 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot, he became Deputy Director General in 2007.
Parker went on to become Director General of the Service in April 2013. As of 2015, Parker was paid a salary of between £165,000 and £169,999 by the department, making him one of the 328 most highly paid people in the British public sector at that time.
In May 2018 Parker said that Russia is seeking to undermine European democracies with "malign activities". Speaking in Berlin, Parker also condemned Russia for the "reckless" poisoning of the Skripals in Salisbury. Russia has denied involvement in the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. Parker also warned Islamic State aspires to commit "devastating" and "more complex" attacks in Europe. Parker said the Kremlin was taking part in "deliberate, targeted, malign activity intended to undermine our free, open and democratic societies".
In 2019 Parker, writing with Cressida Dick, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, suggested that far-right terrorism has been identified as a key threat to the safety and prosperity. They warned that while Islamist terrorism remains the largest by scale, they are also “concerned about the growing threat from other forms of violent extremism … covering a spectrum of hate-driven ideologies, including the extreme right and left.”

Honours

Parker was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the 2019 Birthday Honours.