GCHQ boss to face PAC grilling
A government spending watchdog will bring a previously anonymous Government Communications Headquarters director into the limelight next month.
Link: Spies’ accounts in danger of qualification – again
The Public Accounts Committee will question GCHQ director David Pepper on the financing of the agency’s £1.62bn headquarters in Cheltenham.
The building houses 1,000 intelligence staff and was funded by the UK’s largest private finance initiative. The cost drew criticism in a National Audit Office report after IT expenses rose to seven times the original estimate.
Pepper’s appearance before the committee marks a trend towards bringing the UK’s intelligence services out of their former secrecy.