How 7/7 changed the intelligence services forever ...Middle East

The 7/7 bombings laid bare significant shortcomings in the UK’s approach to preventing and responding to terrorism.

On 7 July 2005, four bombs exploded across London at Aldgate Station, Edgware Road, King’s Cross/Russell Square and Tavistock Square, killing 52 people and injuring around 800.

As the nation marks the tragic event’s 20th anniversary, we look at some of the key ways the co-ordinated terror attacks changed the intelligence services.

The 7/7 bombings prompted huge changes in counterterrorism delivery in London and across the country. Notably, the attacks led to better intelligence-sharing within individual organisations and partner agencies.

In October 2006, SO15, Counter Terrorism Command was created in the Metropolitan Police.

It is responsible for leading counterterrorism investigations in London, as well as the work of the Prevent programme in the capital, which focuses on tackling radicalisation.

Prior to SO15’s creation, the Met’s counterterrorism divisions were split into two separate commands – SO12 and SO13.

Special branch, SO12, dealt with intelligence, and SO13, the anti-terrorist branch, was responsible for investigations; 7/7 highlighted these two separate commands needed to be working closer together, so they were merged under the SO15 banner.

Greater collaboration

The need for greater collaboration is a recurring theme among the lessons learned by intelligence and emergency services following 7/7.

In the aftermath of the attacks, there was a emphasis closer working between intelligence agencies – MI5, MI6 and GCHQ – as well as police forces around the country.

Sean O’Callaghan, Assistant Chief Constable at British Transport Police (BTP), told The i Paper that key changes to improve public safety had been implemented as a result of the attacks.

“We have enhanced partnership working through the London Resilience Team and with Transport for London, to ensure our preparedness in an emergency response,” he said.

“There is regular Joint Command training between BTP, Metropolitan Police Service, London Fire Brigade, and London Ambulance Service. A co-location of the London Underground Control Centre and the London Force Control Room has led to better co-ordination.”

Although the 7/7 bombings took place in the capital, the attackers came from outside of London. As a result, intelligence services realised the need for better regional links.

Several years after the fatal attacks, a new counterterrorism framework was introduced and regional counterterrorism networks were established, where before special branches had existed. The MI5 also expanded across the country, establishing new regional offices.

Stronger links between police and partner agencies such as MI5 were also fostered, a legacy that continues to this day.

Counterterrorism agencies brought under one roof

The theme of ever closer collaboration continued with the creation of the counterterrorism operation centre in west London, which was developed following the series of terrorist attacks in 2017. It brought the major partners involved in intelligence and counterterrorism under one roof, including MI5 and the Met.

Several of the 7/7 attackers were known to intelligence services prior to the attacks. Ringleader Mohammed Sidique Khan was one of two who had been under surveillance, but he was not assessed as being a priority for investigation.

The coroner, Lady Justice Hallett, said “confusion [had] reigned” within the Security Service about photographs of the bombers, which had been shown to informants around a year before but were of “dreadful quality”. She made recommendations concerning the improvement of the handling of photographs, and the recording of decisions about prioritisation of targets.

In its 2012 response, the government said security services had implemented more detailed recording of the decisions made to prioritise investigations and relevant individuals, and that their systems and technologies for the handling of photographs had improved significantly by 2011.

Shifts in UK security policy and strategy

Contest, the Government’s comprehensive counterterror strategy, was first published in 2003 but was comprehensively revised following 7/7.

Jessica White, acting director of terrorism and conflict studies at the Royal United Services Institute, said the bombings “not only took and devastated lives but altered the course of UK security policy”.

“Counterterrorism in the UK – almost exclusively focused on the threat of Islamist extremism – drove security priorities and decisions for almost 15 years, reinforcing global shifts following the September 2001 attacks in the US.

“While this was not the first enduring threat of terrorism the UK has faced, there was a collective acceptance after 7/7 of counterterrorism measures becoming a constant daily presence. The UK’s Contest grew to being considered a model counterterrorism strategy globally.”

The internet played a significant role in the radicalisation of and planning carried out by the 7/7 attackers. Since then, digital intelligence-gathering capabilities have advanced hugely.

But the UK’s terror watchdog, Jonathan Hall KC, has warned that current methods used by extremists to influence potential recruits are “a million miles” from the tactics used in the run up to 2005 and society is “struggling” to work out the correct response.

More CCTV on public transport

An extensive network of CCTV exists across London’s transport network. As of February 2023, there were more than 77,000 CCTV cameras in place throughout TfL services, including the Tube.

In the five years after 7/7, the number of CCTV cameras on the Tube increased from 8,500 to 12,000, the then London Underground managing director Mike Brown said.

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Communications from the trains to the London Underground Network Control Centre were found to be “inadequate or non-existent” in a review of 7/7 by the London Assembly Transport Committee (LATC). Tim O’Toole, the managing director of London Underground at the time, said the antiquated radio systems sometimes failed due to blind spots in the tunnels and interruptions to the service.

The LATC said digital radio, to replace the old analogue systems, would be crucial in the event of a future emergency, and in its report it delivered a number of recommendations around improving underground communications.

In response, TfL completed the rollout of two digital radio systems: Connect, a more reliable network facilitating communications in and between stations, and Airwave radio, the network used by police and emergency services at all 125 below ground stations.

Work with Muslim communities

Former Met Police chief superintendent Dal Babu said that since 7/7 the Met had worked to make progress on improving Muslim representation within counterterrorism commands and building trust and confidence in the community.

Babu, who was chair of the Association of Muslim Police in the Met, said: “I could see that there’s a huge gap in the police’s understanding of the Muslim community, so I set up the National Association of Muslim Police, which was an organisation across all the forces, and one of the things I raised with the police service at the time, was there was only eight Muslim officers in the counterterrorism command.”

He said he told senior leadership “given where the threat was coming from that it was really important to have people who understood the issues and that was a huge gap in counterterrorism across the country”.

Babu said initially there was resistance from senior officers, but counterterrorism was more representative today and “we’re in a much better position than we were then.

“Counterterrorism commands are much more representative of different communities, so I think in that respect there’s a better understanding of these issues.”

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