§ MR. CUBITT (Surrey, Reigate)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether his attention has been called to the fact that on the 23rd. the Dorking Advertisercontained the copy of a letter sent by the Local Government Board to the Dorking Rural District Council, which that council had previously refused to make public pending further negotiations with the Board; and whether it is the custom of the Board to supply a copy of such letters to anyone who applies for them without reference to the authority to whom they were originally written; and, if not, if he will take steps to deal with the official who was responsible for the disclosure in this case.
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. CHAPLIN,) Lincolnshire, SleafordIt is not the custom of the Local Government Board to supply as a matter of course a copy of a letter which they had addressed to a local authority to anyone applying for it. In the present case the letter was one which they had sent to the district council in sanctioning a loan for sewerage, and 74 application for a copy of it was made by a ratepayer, with whom the Board had had some correspondence in connection with the loan. There did not appear to be any sufficient reason for refusing the application. The Board have no information as to the facts referred to in the first paragraph of the question.