§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science on what date she received a letter from Mr. P. J. Roberts, editor of the Eastern Daily Press, sent under date of the 5th April 1977 regarding the bank raid by Great Yarmouth schoolchildren; and, as the editor has no objection, whether she will publish this letter in the Official Report and make a statement in connection with this matter.
§ Mrs. Shirley WilliamsMr. Roberts' letter, which was received on 12th April, is printed below, together with my reply sent on 18th April:
Eastern Counties Newspapers Limited
Prospect House
Rouen Road
Norwich NR1 1RE
Telephone Norwich (STD 0603) 287311
Rt. Hon. Shirley Williams, M.P.,
Secretary of State for Education and Science,
House of Commons,
Westminster,
London, S.W.1.
5th April, 1977.
DEAR MADAM,
I write to express my grave concern at your written reply to Mr. Arthur Lewis, M.P., concerning the recent mock bank raid by schoolchildren at Great Yarmouth (see attached tearsheet). The section of your reply which mentions the "Eastern Daily Press" is wholly inaccurate. Furthermore, as far as can be traced, no inquiries were made of us by your department to establish the chain of events so far as we were concerned.
Your reply to Mr. Lewis says that the headmaster notified our Yarmouth office but that we did not send a reporter but instead notified the Great Yarmouth news agency. We sent both a reporter and a photographer. We did not notify either of the Yarmouth news agencies—there are two—nor did we have anything to do with television coverage or the presence of a national daily paper.
I feel that your reply to Mr. Lewis, containing completely inaccurate references to this newspaper and the activities of its staff at Great Yarmouth, is likely to cause us considerable difficulty, both in that town and with the Norfolk education committee; some official amendment is surely called for. (I am publishing the facts in this paper tomorrow).
I am sending a copy of this letter to Mr. Arthur Lewis, M.P., and Mr. David Coatsworth, Norfolk Education Officer.
Yours faithfully,
P. J. ROBERTS, Editor.
Enc.
52WElizabeth House,
York Road,
London SE1 7PH.
01-928 9222
From the Secretary of State.
18 April 1977.
P. J. Roberts, Esq.
Editor,
Eastern Daily Press,
Eastern Counties Newspapers Ltd.
Prospect House.
Rouen Road,
Norwich,
NR1 1RE.
Thank you for your letter of 5 April.
I am very sorry indeed that the letter sent on my behalf on 21 March to Mr. Arthur Lewis, M.P., contained inaccurate references to your newspaper based on replies given in good faith to a telephone inquiry made by officials in my Department. I hope that you and your staff will accept my apologies. You are of course free to publish this letter it you wish.
SHIRLEY WILLIAMS.
§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether she will give the reasons why wrong information was given to the hon. Member for Newham, North-West on 4th April concerning the bank raid by Great Yarmouth schoolchildren; what action she has taken to correct this wrong information and to apologise to those concerned; and what action she intends to take against those who supplied her with this incorrect information.
§ Mrs. Shirley WilliamsInquiries about the incident to which my hon. Friend refers were made by telephone so that he could be given an early reply. I regret that a small part of the information given to him was later found to be inaccurate. I wrote on 18th April to my hon. Friend and to the editor of theEastern Daily Press to express my regrets I do not intend to take any action against any officials, who handled the information in good faith and with commendable zeal.
§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what action she took to check her statement that the Eastern Daily Press did not send a reporter and that it notified a Great Yarmouth news agency of the bank raid by children at the Green acre Junior Schools; and who supplied her with this information which has since proved incorrect.
53W
§ Mrs. Shirley WilliamsThe information was supplied to my officials in good faith by the Norfolk Education Authority on the basis of an oral report which it had received from Great Yarmouth. No action was taken to check the information, which was needed quickly, since the authority had no reason to mislead or misinform the Department.