§ Lord Lester of Herne Hillasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will publish the documents disclosed for the purposes of the Factortame litigation, referred to in the skeleton arguments of the applicants and respondents in 1997; and if not, why not. [HL1659]
§ Baroness HaymanThe Government are willing to publish documents in accordance with the normal procedures of the Public Record Office or operated under the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information. The events leading up to the enactment of the Merchant Shipping Act 1988 were examined and described in detail in the judgments of the English courts in theFactortame case. Those judgments cite and often quote from the government documents which the courts regarded as central to an understanding of the matter, and we have already published those documents following the noble Lord's earlier request. Experience of his earlier question shows that specific requests of this kind for access to documents are most appropriately addressed in correspondence to enable requests to be clarified and avoid misunderstanding. As we have also received a letter from the noble Lord containing a further request for Factortame documents, we shall ensure that his present Question is addressed in our reply and will be made available in the Libraries of the House.