Terrorism Threat Levels

What are they?

The Threat level isn’t something you regularly hear about, other than perhaps in the news when it changes. Therefore, it’s not overly surprising that the majority of the population know very little about the threat level, including what it is currently at and how many levels there actually are. 

The threat levels have no expiry dates and can change at any time as and when new information and intelligence becomes available. They have been in place since 2006 and were put in place to warn of likelihood of terrorist activity.

The threat levels are for the UK as a whole and do not vary or change for any individual areas. The main threats to national security within the UK are terrorism, espionage, cyber-attacks and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. 

The current threat level is SUBSTANTIAL 

What happens in each threat level (Response)?

How are the levels decided?

The national threat level for the UK from all forms of terrorism is set by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC). However, the threat level for Northern Ireland in Northern Ireland is set separately by the security services.

The below factors are considered when setting the threat level:

• Available intelligence. Judgements are often made based on a wide variety of information which is fragmentary in nature. JTAC also takes intelligence from the current nature of terrorist activity with events in other countries.
• Terrorist capability. This is an examination of terrorist abilities and skills at the set time. This would strongly relate to information based on previous and foiled activities alongside intelligence.
• Terrorist intentions. Assessment of the terrorists’ overall aims and what ways they may look to achieve them. This could include identifying possible targets that relate to these aims.
• Timescale. The threat level expresses the likelihood of an attack in the near term. Some attacks may be years in the planning and others could come together much more quickly. If intelligence is unavailable a judgement will need to be made about the closeness of any attacks that may come to fruition. 

Recent History of Threat Levels