The Ministry of Defence Police and Guarding Agency is an executive agency

Executive agency

An executive agency, also known as a next-step agency, is a part of a government department that is treated as managerially and budgetarily separate in order to carry out some part of the executive functions of the United Kingdom government, Scottish Government, Welsh Assembly or Northern Ireland...

 of the Ministry of Defence

Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)

The Ministry of Defence is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces....

. The organisation was formed on 1 April 2004 by the amalgamation of the MoD Police Agency

Ministry of Defence Police

The Ministry of Defence Police is a civilian police force which is part of the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence. The force is part of the larger government agency, the Ministry of Defence Police and Guarding Agency , together with the Ministry of Defence Guard Service...

 with the Ministry of Defence Guard Service

Ministry of Defence Guard Service

The Ministry of Defence Guard Service is part of the Ministry of Defence Police and Guarding Agency, and provides British Ministry of Defence establishments with unarmed security guard and patrol services....

, with the purpose of providing a coordinated approach to the provision of security to MoD property. The agency has its Headquarters in Wethersfield, Essex and is headed by a Chief Executive, who also serves as the Chief Constable

Chief Constable

Chief constable is the rank used by the chief police officer of every territorial police force in the United Kingdom except for the City of London Police and the Metropolitan Police, as well as the chief officers of the three 'special' national police forces, the British Transport Police, Ministry...

 of the MoD Police. In addition to providing policing and security to MoD property, the MDPGA contracts out its services to external users; these can include other executive agencies of the British Government (Dstl

Dstl

The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory is a trading fund of the Ministry of Defence of the United Kingdom. Responsibility for Dstl lies with the Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology, currently Peter Luff....

, Royal Mint

Royal Mint

The Royal Mint is the body permitted to manufacture, or mint, coins in the United Kingdom. The Mint originated over 1,100 years ago, but since 2009 it operates as Royal Mint Ltd, a company which has an exclusive contract with HM Treasury to supply all coinage for the UK...

), commercial users (QinetiQ

QinetiQ

Qinetiq is a British global defence technology company, formed from the greater part of the former UK government agency, Defence Evaluation and Research Agency , when it was split up in June 2001...

) and visiting armed forces from overseas.

Ministry of Defence Police

The Ministry of Defence Police (MDP) supplies specialised civilian policing services to the MoD community, both military and civilian units. It also supports the Defence vision (a force for good in the world) by contributing to international policing in countries such as Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan; its principal role in these regions is to help develop a model for human rights-based local policing, by training and mentoring local recruits.

Ministry of Defence Guard Service

The Ministry of Defence Guard Service (MGS) role is to provide unarmed guarding and access control services to MoD units across the UK. It guards over 200 sites including the MoD HQ in London, the nuclear submarine base at HM Naval Base Clyde, and the RAF stations at Menwith Hill

RAF Menwith Hill

RAF Menwith Hill is a Royal Air Force station near Harrogate, North Yorkshire which provides communications and intelligence support services to the United Kingdom and the United States of America...

 and Fylingdales

RAF Fylingdales

RAF Fylingdales is a Royal Air Force station on Snod Hill in the North York Moors, England. Its motto is "Vigilamus" . It is a radar base and part of the United States-controlled Ballistic Missile Early Warning System...

Agency role

The agency's role as defined in its Corporate Plan is: Delivering effective policing and guarding as part of the UK's Defence capability. The focus of all agency activity is to counter the following crimes and security risks faced by the MoD:

• Terrorist attack and the threat of attack.
• Disruption and disorder caused by protestors.
• Theft of key assets.
• Major financial fraud.
• Unauthorised intrusion onto the Defence Estate.

Agency outputs

• Protection of the UK's Strategic Nuclear Deterrent.
• Defence business continuity: the ability to reinforce the protection of Defence personnel and property.
• Defensive armed policing: the capability to deter and respond to, an armed attack on Defence personnel and property.
• Uniformed policing: the effective use of police powers to deter, detect, and respond to crime and disorder.
• Guarding: the provision of unarmed guarding and access control to Defence personnel and property.
• Crime investigation: the prevention, detection and investigation of crime that impacts significantly against Defence capability, and the recovery of stolen assets.
• International capability: the contribution of specialist policing expertise in support of wider Defence and foreign policy objectives.
• Policy: contributing to Defence policing and guarding policy.