Britain’s Security Service, MI5, has been included in a lobby group’s top 100 employers for homosexuals for the first time.

MI5, which is tasked with protecting the UK against threats to national security, pays for a small number of homosexual employees to attend leadership training with the aim of preparing them to apply for the top jobs.

Around 100 employees at the organisation belong to a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) group.

‘Equality’

Homosexual lobby group Stonewall create the list by taking submissions from employers and staff and marking them against a number of critera.

MI5′s Director General, Jonathan Evans, said the Security Service had “worked hard in recent years to promote equality and diversity across all areas of its work”.

He said: “We will continue to support lesbian, gay and bisexual staff to make MI5 a truly inclusive place to work.”

MI5 appears at number 62 on the list. Accountacy firm Ernst & Young is at the top, while the Home Office is at number 2.

Marriage

Many local councils also feature on the list, including Brighton & Hove City Council, the London Borough of Islington and East Sussex County Council.

Also on the list, at number 90, is the Scottish Government. It ran a consultation last year on changing the definition of marriage to allow for homosexual couples.