ABSTRACT
GCHQ at Cheltenham33 was established under the royal prerogative, as part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.34 The principal tasks of GCHQ include the security of military and official communications and the provision of signals intelligence (SIGINT) for the government. GCHQ has an annual budget of about £500 million and a staff of some 4,500 personnel, making it the largest of the three intelligence services in the United Kingdom.
