NORTHERN IRELAND (OFFICIAL INFORMATION DISCLOSURE) (Hansard, 22 January 1976)

§ The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Mr. Merlyn Rees)
The Protestant Telegraph which was published in Belfast on 29th November carried an article which quoted from three official documents of the Northern Ireland Department of Housing, Local Government and Planning, two of which were classified "Confidential".
An official complaint was lodged with the Chief Constable. The RUC is actively investigating the matter. I cannot comment further on the nature of the investigation, which is entirely a matter for the police.
1538 Yesterday, according to the Official Report, the hon. Member for Antrim, North (Rev. Ian Paisley) in the debate in Committee made certain references which it is apparent were quotations from a document classified "Confidential" about the appointment by the Minister of the Chairman of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive. This implied a further disclosure of official information.
I should also inform the House that after the RUC had begun its inquiry a document classified "Restricted", and prepared by Army representatives for the purpose of briefing the Minister in connection with the impact of the security situation on housing questions in West Belfast, was reproduced in full in the Irish Times of 5th December. This also is being investigated by the RUC.
Certain allegations implying irregularities in housing matters for which the Northern Ireland Housing Executive is responsible were raised with me by the hon. Member for Birmingham, Edgbaston (Mrs. Knight) in a series of letters beginning in September last year. As I informed the hon. Lady at the time, these also have been brought to the attention of the RUC.
I am seriously concerned that the action of any individual in the public service or connected with it may bring into disrepute the high standards of the service as a whole and the name and repute of good and civilised government within the United Kingdom. It is essential, therefore, that every possible measure should be taken to eradicate the source of such leaks.

§ Mr. Fitt
Does my right hon. Friend agree with me that the recent disclosures cast a real cloud of suspicion on every civil servant at Stormont Castle, and that many of those civil servants are trying to do a very difficult job and are in no way involved with the leakage of information to the particular gentleman named?
Does my right hon. Friend also agree that it would appear that the hon. Member for Antrim, North (Rev. Ian Paisley) who, by the way, is at a wedding today—and did not think it important enough to come here—has access to Army files, police files, Housing Executive files and every part of the Civil Service administration in Northern Ireland, and that the 1539 hon. Member's remarks yesterday were calculated to smear a person who had just been appointed to a very responsible position in the Housing Executive in Northern Ireland?
Will my right hon. Friend give an undertaking that he will pursue his inquiries with all urgency, and that if it means appointing a Select Committee of this House to inquire into the activities of the hon. Member there will be no hesitation in setting up such a Select Committee?

§ Mr. Powell
On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. Is it in order to refer to the proceedings in a Committee of this House which has not yet reported?

§ Mr. Speaker
The right hon. Member for Down, South (Mr. Powell) is wrong. It has reported.

§ Mr. Rees
The appointment of a Select Committee is not a matter for me. My hon. Friend the Member for Belfast, West (Mr. Fitt) is right in saying that it is a bad thing for the Civil Service in Northern Ireland that documents are leaked with consistency, and that they appear in newspapers—

§ Mr. Arthur Lewis
It happens here.

§ Mr. Rees
My hon. Friend the Member for Newham, North-West (Mr. Lewis) has seen nothing in that respect unless he has been to Northern Ireland. The hon. Member for Antrim, North, in discussion with my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary, quoted verbatim from the record and said "This is on a file on a piece of paper in your office." There is no doubt that documents are passed, and the harm that this does to the Northern Ireland Civil Service, in a divided community, is really very great.
I can only assume that any hon. Member who has information that would help to track down any person passing this sort of information—at a time when I was busy dealing with the question of an appointment to the chairmanship of the Housing Executive—will make that information available. It really is indefensible that a quite proper analysis of the character of the person involved 1540 should be peddled around. It makes the normal processes of government very much more difficult. Inquiries are, of course, taking place, and I am sure that all men of honour will help the police.

§ Mr. Molyneaux
In view of the fact that the disclosures appear to relate solely to housing matters, will the Secretary of State say whether he suspects that the disclosures may have come from the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, from the Department of Housing or, as has been implied, from his own Northern Ireland Office? Secondly, will he say what damage, if any, has been done to the public interest by the disclosure of this information?

§ Mr. Rees
Concerning the origin of the document, it would be much better if I were to say nothing as to where my suspicions may lie. I think it is a matter for the police. Whatever its source, however, the fact that someone feels that information of this kind should be passed on is very regrettable. We have had military documents passed on, and it is not a subject of amusement in the security forces that anyone regarding himself as loyal should do that kind of thing.
I feel that it is much better for me to leave the matter there. I can only repeat that it has done damage to the Northern Ireland Civil Service. I am afraid that too often I hear from different parts of the community, or rather from a particular part of the community, that the Northern Ireland Civil Service is Protestant-dominated. That is not true, but we shall now have it said "What do you expect from the Civil Service?" The Northern Ireland Civil Service is a remarkably fine service. There are bad eggs everywhere—sometimes, perhaps, in the House of Commons.

§ Mr. McNamara
Is my right hon. Friend aware that one of the most important of British standards is that the identity of civil servants and the advice they may give to Ministers is highly treasured and kept very secret by all administrations, in order that a civil servant may give advice knowing that it will be treated as his best opinion and not as something which is likely to be leaked or used against him or used to throw suspicion on him and his colleagues in the future?
1541 Can my right hon. Friend say whether any of the matters referred to in Committee have been brought to him by any hon. Members representing Northern Ireland constituencies saying where they got any of this information? Thirdly, is this only a phenomenon of the present administration in Northern Ireland or has it occurred in the past?

§ Mr. Rees
I am advised that the same thing happened under the previous administration. On the second point about Northern Ireland Members, not as far as I am aware. As for standards, that matter does arise in this respect. While the modern fad is to believe that what is sometimes peddled around is advice and discussion which takes place—I suppose that that is what one has to take in political life and we should welcome it—if documents are handed around and published when it would be very easy for those concerned to come to discuss them so that it can be explained what they are all about, that is a matter of standards which is to be deprecated.

§ Mr. Thorpe
While the leak in security is a matter for the police, would the right hon. Gentleman agree that for any hon. Member or civil servant in Northern Ireland the first priority should be to obtain a settlement which alone can end the bloodshed in Northern Ireland, and that anyone who exploits a security leak and, far worse, uses it to gain some temporary political advantage is indulging in action which in all quarters of the House would be utterly deprecated?

§ Mr. Rees
I agree fully. As I was coming to the House today I heard a further statement about this matter to the effect that all that had gone on in West Belfast was a deal with the IRA and so on. That is the most worrying aspect. The deductions which are made from documents in Northern Ireland would leave Aristotle gasping.