David Veness

Sir David Veness CBE QPM is Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Operations at New Scotland Yard. He joined the Metropolitan Police in 1964, and is an expert on counter-terrorism and security.

He has called for greater collaboration between public and private sectors in the fight against terrorism. The remarks were made in a speech to the think-tank Demos on February 2005, one of his last public appearances before taking up his new post as Under-Secretary-General for Safety and Security at the United Nations. [1]

Veness is a proponant of Project Griffin:

“Great strides have already been made in strengthening the existing counter-terrorist partnership; for instance, more than 1,000 security personnel have already been trained under Project Griffin, which better equips them with the knowledge of the type of suspicious activity they should be looking for and how they could help the emergency services if an incident should occur. The active

support of this initiative from a wide range of private organisations is very encouraging, but it is just one element in an enterprise which is far reaching and enduring.”

Vaness is also a member of the National Crime Squad Service Authority. [2] He is a visiting Professor at Cranfield University contributing to their 'Resilience Centre' [3] which works with the Civil Contingencies Secretariat, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Ministry of Defence, the Cabinet office, the Metropolitan Police, the Home Office, the Security Industries Authority, the Intelligence Services and the Emergency Planning College at Easingwold. Cranfield works with a range of other organisations, including BAe SYSTEMS, EADS, Thales, DsDstl, Qinetiq and many other organisations in both the public and private sectors. [4] Its customers include those working in the Security Business, in Security-related employment within Government and in Security-related employment within Corporate Business. [5] [6]

Veness also takes part in the Government Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC):

"The ISC is established under the Intelligence Services Act 1994 to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the United Kingdom’s three intelligence and security Agencies: the Security Service, the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) and the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). The ISC members are appointed by, and report directly to the Prime Minister, and through him to Parliament by the publication of the Committee’s Reports. The members are notified under the Official Secrets Act 1989 and, as such, operate within ‘the ring of secrecy’." [7]

The Committee sees significant amounts of classified material in carrying out its oversight duties and excludes any parts of the Report (indicated by the *** in the text) that would be prejudicial to the "continuing discharge of the functions of the three intelligence and security Agencies". An example of the report is rendered thus:

"In 2001 SIS allocated *** of its effort to Counter-Terrorism; this has risen to *** in 2002 and will be *** in 2003. Work relating to the Middle East and North Africa rose from *** in 2002 to*** in 2003, largely due to additional work relating to Iraq. Effort allocated to countering the proliferation of WMD also rose slightly from *** in 2002 to *** in 2003."

Veness has also written for the Foreign Policy Centre (FPC) [8] with 'The Unlikely Counter-Terrorists', 2002, which was sponsored by BAe Systems, Control Risk Group and the Risk and Security Management Forum (an ad hoc group which involves Rachel Briggs of Demos and the FPC). This collection of essays includes pieces from David Veness of the Metropolitan Police; Control Risks Group; other business security and terrorist experts; and Richard Sambrook of the BBC. [9]