§ Mr. AllasonTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is the current location of the Government code and cypher school(a) original decrypts of German army and air force Enigma traffic and (b) SMA original decrypts in the Japanese military attaché; series. [23841]
§ Mr. RifkindThe Government communication headquarters—GCHQ—released reports based on Government code and cypher school decrypts of wartime German army and air force messages to the Public Record Office in January 1996 under reference HW5. Reports based on decrypts of Japanese military attachémessages were released in April 1995 under reference HW10. In many cases, the original decrypts were destroyed when the reports were issued, or soon after, and the Public Record Office has stated that it has no requirement for GCHQ to release the few original decrypts that still exist.
§ Mr. AllasonTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what plans he has to release original Government code and cypher school Enigma decrypts to the Public Record Office. [23842]
§ Mr. RifkindGCHQ has already released to the Public Record Office—PRO—a considerable amount of Government code and cypher school signals intelligence and related documents, including the reports based on Enigma decrypts which were passed to Churchill from 1941 onwards. GCHQ is continuing to review its records from the second world war and earlier, with the aim of releasing as many as possible. The answer which I gave to the hon. Gentleman earlier explained that the few remaining decrypts are not required by the PRO.