§ Mr. Robert Atkinsasked the Secretary of State for Defence what plans he has for improving telephone security in his Department.
§ Mr. YoungerThe risk of interception by hostile intelligence services of official telephone calls, including those made on the Government telephone network, is growing continually. My Department's security regulations contain explicit instructions warning against the discussion of classified information on the telephone, but I have decided that further action is required to ensure that those instructions are complied with. My Department will therefore be undertaking a number of telephone monitoring exercises over the next few months. These will be strictly confined to certain internal Ministry of Defence telephone lines, and calls on the public network will not be monitored.