HC Deb 23 July 1997 vol 298 c600W
Mr. Shepherd

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent actions have been taken to identify the Soviet spy at Bletchley Park codenamed Baron; and if he will make a statement. [9766]

Mr. Robin Cook

It is long-standing practice not to disclose the detail of such operations by the security and intelligence agencies.

Mr. Shepherd

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs for what reason the Venona intercept of 3 April 1941, recently released to the Public Record Office, has been redacted to eliminate annotations referring to the Soviet source codenamed Baron. [9765]

Mr. Cook

There was no such redaction. When the decrypt in question was issued, the identity of Baron was unknown. Practice in such cases at the time was either to confirm in footnotes that an identity was unknown or simply to leave a cover name with no explanation; the latter course was taken in the case of the 3 April 1941 message.