Warning over intelligence job cuts

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The Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS) is facing the loss of 121 jobs - more than 20% of its London establishment - according to trade union documents seen by the BBC.

The MoD said no decisions had been taken and intelligence capabilities would not be compromised.

However John Morrison, a former deputy chief of defence intelligence, described the cuts as "ludicrous" and warned that they would severely affect DIS's coverage.

DIS analyses and assesses intelligence gathered by the agencies - MI6, MI5 and GCHQ - for the Armed Forces and the wider intelligence community. It is the main source of expertise within the MoD on subjects such as the science and technology of weapons systems and arms proliferation.

The job cuts were said to be the result of a "streamlining" exercise to install all the DIS's London staff - currently based in buildings scattered around the capital - in MoD headquarters. Mr Morrison described the plan as "nonsense".

"It's totally ludicrous and it just seems to be a desire to come down to only one building, the main building, which simply isn't big enough to hold all the DIS and therefore they must be cut," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme. "It would mean that the DIS would have to give up large areas of work at a time when the requirements levied on the intelligence community are growing continuously.

"It would simply have to stop working in large areas, not least because it's almost one person thin in several areas and you can't say 'We'll take one of two people out and let the other person get on with it'. There is no other person. It is really a unique centre of expertise for the UK."

In a statement, the MoD said: "No decisions have been taken and intelligence capability will not be compromised. Streamlining is not about reducing high-priority defence outputs, it is about achieving those outputs more effectively.

"We recognise the DIS contribution to the wider intelligence community and there would be wide consultation with the intelligence and security community to determine any impact of change."