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Home Office

Answer

Mr. Livingstone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department for what reasons the figures regarding numbers of personal files held by M15 which he gave the House on 29 July 1998, Official Report, columns 251-54, differ from those in the 1997-98 Annual report of the Intelligence and Security Committee; and if M15 records held in microform are classified within the traffic light system. [89624] Mr. Straw: The figures given by the Intelligence and Security Committee and those given in my reply to my hon. Friend, the Member for City of Chester (Ms Russell), 29 July 1998, Official Report, columns 251-54, are not incompatible. The Security Committee breakdown of figures is different from that in my reply. In my reply, I said that the Security Service held approximately 440,000 files, 290,000 related to individuals who may have been the subject of an inquiry or investigation. The 290,000 was further broken down as: 230,000 closed files; 40,000 microfilmed; and 20,000 active files. In its report, the Committee gave the figures as 250,000 hard copy personal records with a further 40,000 on microfiche. It broke the 250,000 down as: 17,500 Green (ie Active) files; 97,000 Amber; 135,000 Red; and additionally 3,000 temporary Green (Gens). Any minor variance in the figures is a result of rounding. All Security Service microfilmed records are closed and are categorised as Red in the traffic light system.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

89624; 334 c538-9W

Session

1998-99

Subjects

Disclosure of information Intelligence services Public records MI5

Contains statistics

Yes