Director General of MI5 explained

Post:	Director General of the Security Service (MI5)
Incumbent:	Ken McCallum
Department:	Security Service (MI5)
Appointer:	Home Secretary
Termlength:	No fixed term
Residence:	Thames House, London, UK
Formation:	Security Service Act 1989
Inaugural:	Vernon Kell 1909
Website:	https://www.mi5.gov.uk/

The Director General of the Security Service is the head of the Security Service (commonly known as MI5), the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency. The Director General is assisted by a Deputy Director General and an Assistant Director General, and reports to the Home Secretary, although the Security Service is not formally part of the Home Office.

List of directors general

Directors General have been:^[1]

1. Maj Gen Sir Vernon Kell, 1909–1940
2. Brigadier 'Jasper' Harker, Acting, June 1940 – April 1941^[2]
3. Sir David Petrie, 1941–1946
4. Sir Percy Sillitoe, 1946–1953
5. Sir Dick White, 1953–1956
6. Sir Roger Hollis, 1956–1965
7. Sir Martin Furnival Jones, 1965–1972
8. Sir Michael Hanley, 1972–1978
9. Sir Howard Smith, 1978–1981
10. Sir John Jones, 1981–1985
11. Sir Antony Duff, 1985–1988
12. Sir Patrick Walker, 1988–1992
13. Dame Stella Rimington, 1992–1996
14. Sir Stephen Lander, 1996–2002
15. Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, 2002–2007
16. Sir Jonathan Evans, 2007–2013
17. Sir Andrew Parker, 2013–2020
18. Ken McCallum, from 2020

See also

• Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service
• Director of the Government Communications Headquarters

External links

• List of Directors General on the MI5 website

Notes and References

1. Web site: Former Directors General. 25 October 2014.
2. Web site: Oswald Allen Harker (1886–1968). State Secrets.... 18 November 2007. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20071007065049/http://www.statesecrets.co.uk/who/index-h.shtml. 7 October 2007.