§ Mr. Marlowasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many diplomats have been involved in criminal proceedings arising from breaches of security over the last 20 years; how many of these cases involved a personal relationship with a member of the opposite sex and how many a homosexual relationship; and of those involving a relationship with the opposite sex, in how many instances the diplomat concerned has been (a) male or (b) female; and what has been the average number of (a) male and (b) female diplomats in post throughout the 20 years.
§ Mr. Hurd[pursuant to his reply, 2 December, c. 260]: Two members of the Diplomatic Service have been subject to criminal proceedings arising from breaches 631W of security in the last 20 years. The first case was that of Leonard Michael Hinchliffe, who was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in 1972 for passing documents to the Russians when he was a registry and cypher officer at the embassy in Khartoum. The second was that of Miss Rhona Ritchie, about which my right Friend the Prime Minister told the House on 30 November. Both cases involved a relationship with a member of the opposite sex. Neither involved a homosexual relationship.
At present there are 2,447 male and 740 female members of the diplomatic service in posts abroad. I regret that figures for the average number of men and women in overseas posts throughout the past 20 years could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.