HC Deb 20 September 1948 vol 456 cc505-6
52. Mr. E. Fletcher

asked the Attorney-General when he expects to receive the report of the Committee on the Law of Libel.

The Solicitor-General (Sir Frank Soskice)

The Report of the Committee on the Law of Defamation has now been presented to my noble Friend the Lord Chancellor and it will be published as soon as arrangements can be made.

Lieut.-Colonel Sir Thomas Moore

Will this law of libel apply to Members of His Majesty's Government and to the statements they make?

Sir Stanley Reed

Does not the learned Solicitor-General agree that this Report is long overdue, seeing that the Commission was appointed in 1938 to consider a Private Member's Bill, introduced by myself in co-operation with the junior Burgess for Oxford University (Sir A. Herbert), and that the House has been promised publication again and again, yet after this long delay we are still awaiting it?

The Solicitor-General

The war intervened and imposed an inevitable delay, but the excellence of the Report no doubt will make up for the delay that has ensued.