CONFIDENTIALITY (Hansard, 3 July 1975)

§ Mr. Stanley
I beg to move Amendment No. 188, in page 17, line 15, leave out paragraph (a).

§ Mr. Deputy Speaker (Mr. George Thomas)
With it we shall discuss the following amendments:

§ Mr. Stanley
In the remaining six minutes left to us before the guillotine falls we can have a short debate on the meaning of this clause. We were unable to discuss it during the guillotined Committee. It deals with information which is agreed to be withheld under Clause 24, but we are here involved with the circumstances in which it will be legitimate for the Government to pass this type of information around. By definition, the information will be deemed to be likely to cause serious injury to a particular company if it is divulged. The clause concerns information which can be released without the consent of the company.
It is not immediately apparent to us why there should be any release within Government of information which is likely 1762 to cause serious injury to a company, and certainly no reason why that information should be released without the consent of the company concerned. The Government propose that the information should be released to Government Departments and to the appeal committee as well as to the Manpower Services Commission and other bodies attached to it. We could see no justification for such a wide release within Government and we therefore tabled our amendments.
There is no reason why this particularly highly sensitive information, which, for example, could concern a company's acquisition proposals or its expenditure on research and development, should be passed around from one Government Department to another. Under the Bill the information can go to any Government Department for use in any of its functions.
Under Clause 24(1)(b) it is right for the committee to have access to it, but why should that be done without the consent of the company? There is no obvious reason why under paragraph (c) the Manpower Services Commission, the Employment Services Agency or the Training Services Agency should be entitled to it. Under the Employment and Training Act 1973 the commission already has powers to obtain information. Under that Act, also, the Minister has powers to enter into agreement with the commission to prepare a major job of relocation and job retraining programme. There appears to be no reason, therefore, why this sensitive information should be passed so readily to bodies which are outside the immediate confines of Whitehall and which, under the terms of its legislation, are semi-independent.
It must be in the interests of the companies and the employees that information which it is agreed by Ministers should be withheld from trade union representatives should be subject to the tightest commercial confidentiality, and that can be achieved only by confining its circulation to the minimum number of people. Our amendments will achieve that objective.

§ Mr. Kaufman
The hon. Member for Tonbridge and Mailing (Mr. Stanley) has been explaining amendments which, I am sure, totally against his intentions, would 1763 make the working of the Bill rather difficult. The amendment he moved would make it impossible for the Minister to discuss with his officials the information he had received, or for them to discuss it with other Government Departments. It would therefore certainly prevent the machinery of Government running as it should. The Government are not concerned simply to acquire information as an end in itself. We are anxious to have information because with it we should be able to exercise the functions of Government efficiently.

§ Mr. Deputy Speaker
It is now my duty to put successively the Questions on all the remaining Government amendments. To save the time of the House I propose to read the amendments out by number. If any hon. Member wishes to divide on any one of the amendments, will he please say so, as I read the numbers out. I shall then put the Question on all the preceding amendments en bloc and then formally put by itself the Question on the disputed amendment. I shall now proceed to read the Government amendments by number.