HC Deb 17 May 1965 vol 712 cc997-8
40. Mr. Kershaw

asked the Paymaster-General what steps he is taking to ensure the security of his Department; and if he will make a statement.

42. Sir F. Bennett

asked the Paymaster-General what steps he is taking to ensure the security of his Department; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Wigg

The normal rules for security in Government Departments are, of course, enforced.

Mr. Kershaw

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for that helpful reply. Will he say whether the new form of positive vetting or the old form is employed in his Department?

Mr. Wigg

The question of positive vetting in my Department is subject to the normal rules. The hon. Gentleman can be assured that the rules are being fully carried out.

Mr. Shinwell

Is my right hon. Friend aware that we have much more security now than we had during the last 13 years?

Mr. Wigg

My right hon. Friend is perfectly right. This is another sphere in which we were left a legacy which was a disgrace to those who were responsible.

Mr. Boyd-Carpenter

Can the Paymaster-General quote any case in the previous Administration where a member of the Cabinet left confidential papers in a public restaurant?

Mr. Wigg

If there were, we could be perfectly sure that the behaviour of the hon. gentleman who found them would he very different from the way he behaved last week.

Mr. Biggs-Davison

Is it not a fact that there is not really anything at all to secure in the right hon. Gentleman's office? Is he not presiding over a picturesque, historic vacuum?

Mr. Wigg

I hope the hon. Gentleman realises that I am not the first person to hold this office. The right hon. Gentleman who was my predecessor held this office. I hope that I will discharge it more honestly, more straightforwardly and more competently than he did.

Sir D. Renton

In view of the right hon. Gentleman's apparent unwillingness to perform the duties for which he was seconded to the Government, has not the time come for him to be sent back to his regiment? [Laughter.]

Mr. Wigg

That got some laughs, but what relevance it has to the Question I do not know. If hon. Gentlemen opposite want to know the nature of my duties they can ask my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister just what they are. However, to make reflections, as the right hon. and learned Member for Huntingdonshire (Sir D. Renton) appeared to do, on the fact that I served in the ranks of the Regular Army is just the action of a cad.