§ 2.58 p.m.
§ LORD SUDELEYMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government whether, under the Public Records Act 1958, they will lay an Order in Council whereby the definition of "public record" (over which the Public Record Office exercises its power of recovery) may be widened, to include the papers of departing Ministers which deal with Party matters.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (LORD ELWYN-JONES)My Lords, the Government do not think that it would be right to do this.
§ LORD SUDELEYMy Lords, may I ask the noble and learned Lord who sits on the Woolsack whether he is aware that it is owing to the vested interest which politicians have in their own papers that no bar is being placed on the export to the United States of all manuscripts which are less than 70 years of age, and that it is this practice which does so much to impede British scholars in their studies of our contemporary history?
§ THE LORD CHANCELLORMy Lords, with respect, I think that that goes a little beyond the original Question; but perhaps I may be permitted to say that all official papers of departing Ministers are public records and they are retained by the Department; a Minister's private papers are not. Your Lordships may think that an appropriate ruling because, after all, even Ministers are entitled to a certain degree of privacy, and Party political papers come into the category of private papers which a Minister may take with him. To take a different view would, I think, be regarded by your Lordships as an intolerable intrusion into the Minister's private affairs—just as would be a requirement for Shadow Ministers to disclose their private political papers.