§ Mr. Leon Brittan (Cleveland and Whitby)I ask leave to present two petitions and to move a motion in relation thereto.
The first petition is brought by solicitors for United Newspapers Publications Limited, the proprietors and publishers of the Lancashire Evening Post and the West Lancashire Evening Gazette, and the editors and journalists in those newspapers and asks for leave to refer to extracts from the Official Report of 2 March 1977, 31 March 1977 and 16 May 1977 in respect of proceedings for libel in the High Court brought against them, and for leave for proper Officers of the House formally to produce the reports.
The second petition is on behalf of solicitors for Express Newspapers Limited, the editor of the Manchester edition of the Daily Express and a journalist sued by the same plaintiff for libel and asks for leave to refer to the same issues of Hansard and for leave for the proper Officers of the House formally to produce them.
§ Ordered,
That leave be given for reference to be made to the said reports of debates and to the proper officers of the House to attend the hearings and formally to produce and to prove the same, according to their competence.—[Mr. Brittan.]