These are the top 10 gay-friendly workplaces in the UK

The perhaps unlikely most LGBT friendly workplace in the UK has been revealed as MI5.

The counter-espionage organisation still had a ban on recruiting gay people until the early 1990s, but appears to have worked hard to rid itself of reactionary views on sexuality since then - this week gay rights campaign group Stonewall named MI5 as the country's most inclusive workplace for gay employees.

Stonewall's workplace equality index ranked MI5 25th in 2013, and seventh last year.

Stonewall chief executive Ruth Hunt said:

MI5 has made fantastic strides in creating an inclusive workplace and has now appeared on the Stonewall list since 2012. This is an amazing achievement and demonstrates just how seriously diversity and inclusion is taken.

The other companies and organisations rounding out the top ten are dominated by organisations from the legal and public sectors:

MI5 said in a statement that more than 70 gay men and women currently work for the organisation.

Director General Andrew Parker said:

Diversity is vital for MI5, not just because it’s right that we represent the communities that we serve, but also because we rely on the skills of the most talented people, whoever they are and wherever they may be.