What is the common name of the agency which supplies the British Government with foreign intelligence? It is also known as the Secret Intelligence Service.

The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 (Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the British intelligence agency which supplies the British Government with foreign intelligence. (Similarly, MI5 supplies the British Government with internal British intelligence.) MI6 operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) alongside the internal Security Service (MI5), the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and Defence Intelligence (DI).

SIS is frequently referred to by the name MI6, a name used as a flag of convenience during the First World War when it was known by many names.The existence of the SIS was not officially acknowledged until 1994.

In late 2010, the head of the SIS delivered what he said was the first public address by a serving chief of the agency in its then 101-year history.