§ Mr. Malcolm MacMillanasked the Minister of Information whether he will take steps to put an end to the military censorship on letters to Members of Parliament from their constituents, in view of the complaint that members of the public 796W are afraid of expressing their views or grievances in letters subject to censorship, even on certain urgent matters requiring Members' attention?
Mr. CooperThere is no military censorship of mail to or from Forces in this country and Northern Ireland. Such mail is subjected to the same degree of postal censorship as civilian mail. I would therefore refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 7th August last to a similar question addressed to me by the hon. Member for Down (Dr. Little). I need hardly add that it is neither the intention nor the practice of the censorship to prevent or penalise in any way free communication between members of the public and their Parliamentary representatives. The censorship which exists in certain parts of Scotland is not military and is designed solely to prevent the leakage of information which might be of value to the enemy. Correspondents may rest assured that it has no other purpose and they need have no fear that any attempt will be made to prevent them writing to their Members of Parliament for the purpose of expressing their views or grievances.