§ Mr. Irvingasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many employees at Government communications headquarters have joined the staff federation; and what proportion of the total number of employees this represents.
§ Mr. RentonIt is not the practice to reveal details of the strength of the security and intelligence agencies, but I can inform my hon. Friend that more than 49 per cent. of the staff at GCHQ have now joined the Government communications staff federation. This is a higher percentage than ever previously belonged to any single union at GCHQ.