The UK’s three intelligence agencies are seeking to widen the pool of talent from which to recruit by accepting anyone with British citizenship – regardless of where their parents come from. “We perform best in our mission to keep the nation safe and advance UK interests when we reflect the diversity of the country we serve,” said a spokesman for GCHQ, MI5 and MI6. “By recruiting people from the widest possible range of backgrounds, we can innovate, challenge established ways of thinking and welcome the brightest and best people to join us. “The parent nationality rule unnecessarily prevented smart people from applying to work with us. The removal of this blanket rule means that all British citizens applying for jobs in our agencies can now be assessed on their ability rather than their parents’ background.’ The agencies stressed that all successful applicants will still be heavily vetted in a process that looks at their lifestyles and personal relationships to identify and manage risks. They said they believed the changes would help organizations compete for the country’s top talent and broaden the range of skills at their disposal – helping them respond to the threats facing the UK more effectively. “It means that all British citizens applying for a job in our agencies can now be assessed on their ability rather than their parents’ background,” the agencies said. Previously, applicants had to be a British citizen and one of their parents either a British citizen or someone with a nationality or citizenship from an approved list of countries. The agencies stressed that the changes, which will come into effect on November 2, 2022, will not affect the requirement for the applicant to be a British citizen themselves. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. The approved nationalities are: British Overseas Territory, British National and British National (Overseas), as well as British Citizen and British Protected. Citizenship of a Commonwealth country, a country in the European Economic Area (EEA) or citizenship of the United States of America (US) is also considered acceptable by intelligence services.
