§ 2.35 p.m.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government whether, and if so in what circumstances, information concerning British subjects is supplied by the British to the American authorities.]
§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (VISCOUNT KILMUIR)My Lords, there are standing arrangements whereby the police in this country give assistance to the police of any other friendly country in making inquiries and furnishing information in criminal cases. Similar arrangements exist for the interchange of information where there is a common defence interest. These arrangements are reciprocal and have frequently proved advantageous to us. If the noble Lord has in mind a particular case in which difficulties have arisen, perhaps he would be good enough to let me have particulars of that case.
LORD FARINGDONMy Lords, do I understand from the reply of the noble and learned Viscount that it is in order, and in fact the practice, to supply information about political affiliations and such things to the American authorities?
§ THE LORD CHANCELLORMy Lords, I have made it clear that there are two broad classes. In the one case there is the ordinary interchange of information between police forces of friendly Powers, which is really part of the self-defence of humanity against the criminal. In the other case there are arrangements for interchange of information—and I repeat to the noble Lord the words that I used previously—where there is a common defence interest. If the noble Lord would like a fuller account of the matter, I 362 think it would be useful to him if he read the statement of my right honourable friend the Home Secretary, made in another place on October 28, 1954. In that case my right honourable friend was dealing with the case of Professor Lattimore. I think the noble Lord will find what my right honourable friend said helpful in the matter into which he is inquiring. Those are the general limits which govern the matter, and they are the limits, as I say, of the world protection in crime and security matters.
LORD FARINGDONMy Lords, the noble and learned Viscount will appreciate that I was not really referring to criminal cases at all. I was referring to the political cases which arise under American law and constitute no kind of criminal record so far as British courts are concerned. I wonder whether the noble and learned Viscount appreciates that (as I think) most people in this country would be a little perturbed to find that information of the type to which I am referring was, in fact, given by the authorities here to the American authorities. The noble and learned Viscount has asked me to give details if I have any, and I have some, but I regret to have to inform him that in view of this practice and of the leak which clearly exists—though apparently it is no leak but, unfortunately in my view, a common practice—I cannot give him those details.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLORMy Lords, I should like to make clear to the noble Lord the main part of what was said on the occasion to which I referred when the matter was dealt with more fully. In the first place, what happened there was nothing more than a routine operation of our police with the authorities of friendly countries. Secondly—and perhaps the noble Lord has not got this in mind and will, therefore, bear with me if I quote—my right honourable friend said that on that occasion so much was it a routine matter that neither the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police nor the Home Office had been consulted at all; and he went on to say [OFFICIAL REPORT, Commons, Vol. 531, col. 300]:
I have given instructions which should ensure that in any comparable case which might arise in future no action will be taken by the police in this country until there has been an opportunity for the matter to be considered at a high level.363 I think that substantially that meets the noble Lord's point. If there are cases that are on the borderline of the criminal law—what the noble Lord has described as political matters—then they will be referred to a higher level and no action will be taken without such reference. I hope that that, to some extent, will sooth the perturbations of the noble Lord.
LORD FARINGDONMy Lords, I wish I could accept the noble and learned Viscount's statement as comforting, but unfortunately the case that I have in mind—
§ SEVERAL NOBLE LORDS: Order, order.
LORD FARINGDONArising out of the reply, I would ask the noble and learned Viscount whether, for example, it would, in his view, be acceptable to the higher levels he has mentioned that the information should be reported to the American authorities that when at university I was a member of the Carlton Club.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLORMy Lords, I must here declare an interest. I was at the same university as the noble Lord, and I was treasurer of the Carlton Club, so that I do not think I can go into any great detail of the noble Lord's performance in that capacity. I think I have made clear that there are these two limited spheres where information is given, and I have also made clear that, as my right honourable friend said, if there is any doubt as to the matter falling within these fields it will be referred to higher authority. What the decision of the higher authority will be in any particular case—even in the case of this admission of the noble Lord's past—I cannot be expected to say to-day.