§ Lord Jenkins of Putneyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the secret services have opened files on members of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament; and whether that body is or has been categorised by MI5 as subversive.
The Earl of CaithnessIt has been the long-standing policy of successive Governments not to comment on specific allegations made about the security authorities. The definition of subversion which guides the work of the security authorities was enunciated by Lord Harris of Greenwich in February 1975 (Official Report, House of Lords, 26.2.75; col 947). The Government have made clear on a number of occasions that peaceful political campaigning to change the mind of the Government and of people generally about the validity of nuclear disarmament, 110WA whether unilateral or otherwise, cannot constitute subversion. Accordingly, no member of CND need fear that he is the object of surveillance by the security authorities unless his own actions and intentions bring him within the strict criteria set out in the definition of subversion.