asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs why six alleged Soviet intelligence agents were allowed to remain in the United Kingdom after the expulsion of 25 others; and if he will make a statement.

There are degrees of involvement in intelligence activities. We initially expelled the 25 intelligence officers against whom we had incontrovertible evidence of the most unacceptable activities. We made clear to the Soviet authorities that if they retaliated through the wholly unjust expulsion of Britons in Moscow we would have to respond. We therefore decided to expel six other Soviet officials who had also been identified as working for Soviet intelligence, though of lesser importance.