HL Deb 06 May 1998 vol 589 c76WA
Lord Avebury

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether, if the copies of the Minutes of Evidence of the Speaker's Conference on Electoral Law of 1965–68 in official hands have all been mislaid, they will enquire of any surviving Members or the heirs of Members, whether they still retain a copy, so that the official record can be reconstituted. [HL1654]

Lord Williams of Mostyn

A copy of these papers is held by the Speaker's Office and by the Home Office. Successive Speakers have directed that the unpublished papers of Speaker's Conferences should be publicly available only on the expiry of 50 years and then subject to the consent of the Speaker in office in respect of each application for access to them.