Miss Sarah Tisdall (Hansard, 26 March 1984)

§ Mr. David Winnick (Walsall, North)

I beg to ask leave to move the Adjournment of the House, under Standing Order No. 10, for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter that should have urgent consideration, namely, the decision taken by the Attorney-General to prosecute Miss Sarah Tisdall under section 2 of the Official Secrets Act. The matter is specific in that it concerns a decision of the Attorney-General to take proceedings against Miss Tisdall which have led to her being imprisoned for six months. It is important because of the public concern about how the case was handled from the start and the clear need to change section 2 of the Official Secrets Act, which was described six years ago by the present Home Secretary as "indefensible."

The matter is urgent because of the six months' sentence that was passed on this young woman. As far as I am aware, before today there was no way in which this matter could have been dealt with once the Attorney-General took the decision to prosecute. A debate is needed so that the House can discuss, as soon as possible, all the reasons why the Attorney-General decided to prosecute Miss Tisdall under section 2 of the Act, why it was decided that she be tried at the Old Bailey and not in a magistrates' court, why action was taken against this person and not The Guardian newspaper which carried the article about cruise missiles arriving, and why a sentence that has been described as severe — some would say savage — was given when in many far more important cases that genuinely affected national security suspended sentences were handed out. For all of those reasons, I believe that We should debate the matter as soon as possible.