Background
Hannigan was born in Gloucestershire and brought up in Yorkshire, and studied classics at Wadham College, Oxford and continued his education at Heythrop College, University of London. He is married with a son and a daughter.
director General civil servant
Hannigan was born in Gloucestershire and brought up in Yorkshire, and studied classics at Wadham College, Oxford and continued his education at Heythrop College, University of London. He is married with a son and a daughter.
Wadham College.
After an early career in the private sector, Hannigan became Deputy Director of Communications for the Northern Ireland Office in 2000, Director of Communications for the Northern Ireland Office in 2001 and Associate Political Director for the Northern Ireland Office in 2004. In 2007, he replaced Sir Richard Mottram as the Head of Security, Intelligence and Resilience at the Cabinet Office, responsible for co-ordinating between the intelligence services and government, and acting as Accounting Officer for the Single Intelligence Account which funds MI5, MI6 and GCHQ. Hannigan moved to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as the Director-General of Defence and Intelligence with effect from 1 March 2010. Director of GCHQ
lieutenant was announced in April 2014 that Hannigan would succeed Iain Lobban as the Director of the signals intelligence and cryptography agency the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in the autumn of the year, taking over in November 2014.
As of 2015, Hannigan was paid a salary of between £160,000 and £164,999 by GCHQ, making him one of the 328 most highly paid people in the British public sector at that time.
Since the 2013 surveillance disclosures, large United States technology companies have improved security and become less co-operative with foreign intelligence agencies, including those of the United Kingdom, generally requiring a United States court order before disclosing data. However the head of the United Kingdom technology industry group techUK rejected these claims, stating that they understood the issues but that disclosure obligations "must be based upon a clear and transparent legal framework and effective oversight rather than, as suggested, a deal between the industry and government".
He served as the Director-General, Political as the Northern Ireland Office from 2005, taking over from Jonathan Phillips. During his time in post, Hannigan led the review into a major data breach incident, and the subsequent report which is informally called the "Hannigan Report".