§ Mr. LordTo ask the Attorney-General whether he has considered the responses to the consultation papers on the law of defamation in England and Wales.
§ The Attorney-GeneralThe Lord Chancellor has given careful consideration to all the views expressed in the responses to the consultation papers. He has been persuaded by the overall response to the first paper, on the availability of the defence of innocent dissemination, that it would be right to allow printers, as well as distributors, to defend libel claims based on defamatory content of which they were not aware and could not reasonably have been expected to be aware. It is, therefore, his intention to provide that the defence of innocent dissemination should be extended to them as soon as a convenient legislative vehicle is available.
The responses to the consultation paper on the death of a party to defamation proceedings have disclosed widely diverging views as to whether or not it would be fairer to allow proceedings to be started or continued in the absence of the party who has died, but the response has not persuaded the Lord Chancellor that the present rule ought to be changed.