09/09/2013
Mary Rhodes asks what lessons are being learnt by child protection agencies in the West Midlands. We hear from inside the Government's highly secretive communication HQ.
Mary Rhodes asks whether child protection agencies are learning from their mistakes following a series of high-profile abuse cases. We hear from inside the Government's highly secretive communication HQ as it's former director speaks for the first time. And, will the highly anticipated launch of Europe's largest public library go to plan? We follow the man tasked with making it all run smoothly.
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GCHQ Fact File
* Currently GCHQ employs over 5,000 people.
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* The Cheltenham building was opened in 2003.
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* GCHQ was previously known as Government Code and Cipher School.
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* GC&CS were responsible for communications and decrypting messages. The most famous example of this was when the British decrypted the ENIGMA Machine messages in the Second World War.
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* GCHQ has two missions - signals intelligence (sigint) and information assurance.
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* Sigint works to provide the government with information to help stop terrorism and serious crime.
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* Information assurance works to protect British infrastructure, making sure critical networks (water, communications, power) are safe from hackers and viruses.
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* The linguistics team work in 40 languages and dialects every day.
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* The specialist skills of the workforce range from cyber security specialists, communication engineering, mathematics and analysis.
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* The central courtyard area of the building could accommodate the Royal Albert Hall.Ìý
* The building is made up of three separate structures which combined are the same size as the old Wembley stadium.
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* The roof comprises over 11,000 square metres of aluminium and is based on the design of the Centre Court, Wimbledon. When the building's lifespan comes to an end, the roof can be 'unzipped' and reused or recycled at a low cost.Ìý
* The building has 13,000 square metres of glass - equivalent to double-glazing for 10% of the houses in Cheltenham.ÌýÌý
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Source: GCHQ website
Inside GCHQ
For the first time a former director of GCHQ talks about his time working in the UK government's intelligence service in Cheltenham.
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Sir Arthur Bonsall is a former director of GCHQ who lived a life in the shadows for almost 40 years.
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Inside Out's Steve Knibbs has been allowed extremely rare access to the GCHQ building in Cheltenham to speak with him.
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on the Â鶹Éç News website.
Credits
| Role | Contributor |
|---|---|
| Presenter | Mary Rhodes |
| Series Editor | Rachel Bowering |
Broadcast
- Mon 9 Sep 2013 19:30Â鶹Éç One West Midlands