HL Deb 11 May 1978 vol 391 cc1257-8WA
Lord O'HAGAN

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether, pursuant to their Answer of 26th April 1978 (Official Report, col. 1966), they will publish details of the records kept by each Department in accordance with paragraph 9 of Sir Douglas Allen's letter of 6th July 1977, and whether they will list—

  1. i. those cases where copies were sent to the Civil Service Department; and
  2. ii. those cases where it was decided not to publish and the reasons recorded in each case.

The LORD PRIVY SEAL (Lord Peart)

It was not the intention that departments should forward automatically to the Civil Service Department copies of their records of factual and analytical material which they had made available as a result of Sir Douglas Allen's letter of 6th July 1977; but they were asked to keep some sort of record of the relevant items made available. Where, however, the material was of an unusual kind departments were asked to forward a copy to the CSD for information. So far no such material has been received. No central record is kept of material which departments have decided not to publish.