§ Dr. D. Johnsonasked the Lord Privy Seal (1) on how many occasions the recruiting regulations with regard to both parents being of British nationality for established or unestablished Foreign Office and Foreign Service posts have 55W been waived during the past 15 years; and whether these are still being rigorously applied;
(2) how many established and un-established members of all the branches of the Foreign Office and Foreign Service Overseas were not British at birth; and how many took advantage of the British Nationality Act, 1948, to acquire British nationality;
(3) how many established and un-established members of all the branches of the Foreign Office and Foreign Service Overseas have changed their name by deed-of-poll or otherwise.
§ Mr. HeathThe regulations governing recruitment for the Foreign Service, including those regarding nationality of the parents of applicants, continue to be rigorously applied. The information for which my hon. Friend asks in the above Questions is contained in the personal file kept for each member of the Foreign Service, both established and unestablished. It is not, however, maintained in statistical form. To obtain this for the purpose of answering these Questions would involve the examination of the contents of each individual personal file for all the members of the Foreign Service and would require the employment of additional confidential staff over a considerable period. As this information is not therefore easily available, I hope that my hon. Friend will not press for the compilation of these statistics.