To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what payments have been made by his Department in each year from 1980 to date to Zeus and Lynx private security companies; and what was the nature of the work undertaken by these companies.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has employed Zeus but not the Lynx security company. Detailed information on this subject is not kept in a centralised form and can only be researched at disproportionate cost. Available records show that Zeus Security Guards Ltd. were employed on access control duties in Whitehall six years ago and on two further occasions in 1983.