MI5 cutting staff to make room for IT-savvy spies?

MI5 is looking to layoff staff in order to make room for those with better tech skills, according to a report.

The security service wants its intelligence officers as well as its support staff to have better IT knowledge to counter terrorists' online activities, according to the government's Intelligence and Security Committee.

The report said MI5 chief Jonathan Evans would introduce voluntary and compulsory redundancy plans, in order to have room to hire better skilled staff. "I think some of the staff perhaps aren't quite the ones that we will want for the future," he told the committee.

The Telegraph said the move has sparked gossip among civil servants about the "James Bond generation" of spies being retired for their lack of web skills.

The report repeatedly noted the need for security agencies to hire more web-savvy staff to counter online terror organisations. GCHQ told the committee that finding "internet analysts" was one of its "main challenges."