§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether he is aware that Ministers and their officials in his Department are refusing to give information to Members which is easily available and where no question of confidentiality or secrecy is involved, particularly concerning alleged neglect 197W upon the part of civil servants to carry out their statutory duties; and, in view of the evidence supplied to him by the hon. Member for West Ham, North on 14th July, if he will take action to change this situation.
§ Sir G. HoweI have a letter of 14th July from the hon. Member about the answer I gave him on 2nd July—[Vol. 859, c.10–11]—about the Portal Engineering Co. Ltd. That letter does not provide any further information.
I replied on 3rd July to the letter received from one of the interested parties on 21st June and on 12th July to further letters received on 6th and 11th July 1973.