To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what are the conditions of service of staff employed at GCHQ. [7741]

The conditions of service of staff employed at GCHQ are set out in the GCHQ staff handbook. Following advice from the director of GCHQ and, in agreement with the Secretary of State for Education and Employment, I have today agreed that they should he amended.The Government's purpose in introducing new conditions of service in 1984 was to protect national security by ensuring continuous operations at GCHQ.This required that GCHQ's activities and operations should be protected from industrial disruption, whether in pursuit of national or local disputes; and should be protected from any risk arising from a conflict of loyalty of the staff; that negotiations on departmental issues should be carried out by departmental staff representatives answerable only to the staff of GCHQ; and that, for national security reasons, GCHQ staff should not have access to industrial tribunals. These objectives have been secured. The amendments I am now making will not affect them or the Government's original purpose, which remains unchanged.The Government have always accepted that staff at GCHQ should have the right to join a staff association which would represent their interests in negotiations over pay, conditions of service and a wide range of other issues. Since 1985 staff have been represented by the Government Communications Staff Federation; this arrangement has worked well, and a good working relationship has been developed between GCHQ management and the GCSF. The GCSF has been recognised by the certification officer for trade unions and employers associations as a trade union.However, certain details of the arrangement whereby the staff federation must be approved by the director of GCHQ, and his power to veto membership of its by staff, have caused the GCSF some difficulty in gaining a certificate of independence.In response to representations from the GCSF, the Government have considered how the conditions of service might be amended, consistent with the needs of national security, to remove this obstacle. The amendments which I have agreed today should do this. They reflect the Government's desire to recognise and to maintain the good working relationship which has been developed between GCHQ management and GCSF. For reasons of national security, staff at GCHQ will continue to be restricted to membership of a body whose officers and representatives are appointed from, and answerable only to, GCHQ staff. Their conditions of service will continue to exclude any form of industrial action. Within this framework, I have agreed to the director's recommendations that his power of approval, and his power of veto over membership of a staff association, should be withdrawn. He will instead exercise the right that every employer has, to choose to recognise for purposes of negotiation and staff representation only one union, and that one remains GCSF.Through these changes, I have carried forward the Government's policy of protecting national security, while also protecting to the maximum extent possible the employment rights of the staff of GCHQ on whose diligence, professionalism and commitment the nation depends.