The Telegraph reports John Major revealed 40,000 items of intelligence that has been delivered annually to the Foreign Office by the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and GCHQ. The GCHQ supplies nearly two thirds of completed intelligence to Whitehall’s consumers.
When Major revealed this information, the reporter, Chapman Pincher from Fleet Street, was surprised when Major affirmed that an unidentified government agency regularly collected copies of communications that are sent in and out of the country. This includes private communications as well as commercial.