Sir Charles Blandford Farr CMG OBE (15 July 1959 – 15 February 2019) was a British civil servant, intelligence officer, and diplomat.
[4][5] Farr was MI6's director of security and public affairs at the time of his appointment to the OSCT by John Reid, then Home Secretary, in the wake of the 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot.
"[7] The report provoked protests from various groups which had been identified in the Quilliam briefing as sympathetic or supportive of Islamist extremism, and was described as "McCarthyite" by Inayat Bunglawala, chairman of Muslims4Uk and Fatima Khan, vice-chair of the Muslim Safety Forum.
[8][9] Bunglawala added: "In effect, Quilliam – a body funded very generously by the government through Prevent – are attempting to set themselves up as arbiters of who is and is not an acceptable Muslim.
[5] In May 2014, Farr made a witness statement on behalf of the government and the three main intelligence agencies for the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, in a legal case brought by advocacy groups including Privacy International, Liberty and Amnesty International, explaining the legal basis for the interception of electronic communications under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.
[14][15] The Prime Minister David Cameron intervened and forced Education Secretary Michael Gove to apologise to Farr for briefings critical of him which appeared on the front page of The Times.
[5]The director of national security and resilience at the Royal United Services Institute, Charlie Edwards, said that Farr is "...not just an effective operator in the field, he is one of the most committed civil servants you will come across...