§ Dr. David ClarkTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) pursuant to his answers of 4 April,Official Report, column 1097, and 19 June, if he will list the companies other than Astra/BMARC to which the documents discovered on 16 June referred; [30225]
(2) on what date he was informed by his Department's police that further documents have been found relating to BMARC and Astra plc; whether these documents included sales documentation of arms exports by BMARC and Astra; and if he will make a statement. [30049]
§ Mr. Soames[holding answer 22 June 1995]: The documents and files were seized by the Ministry of Defence police, MDP, pursuant to powers given by the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. In the case of Marcel (1992 Ch. 225), the Court of Appeal decided that where documents were seized by the police under those powers, the police owed a private law duty of confidence to the owners of the documents and that this private law duty had the effect that no further disclosure of the documents by the police was permitted unless the disclosure was for a purpose contemplated by the 1984 Act, or was necessary in the public interest. The Department has received legal advice that the same principles apply to a description of the documents by categories. Having regard to that advice I do not propose to list or describe the documents seized by the Ministry of Defence police.
A re-sort of the seized property store, expedited by the deputy chief constable of the MOD police, has accounted for all schedules of documents seized from the Astra group of companies by the MDP during the course of corruption investigations involving those companies. All Astra company documents have been returned to the liquidators; other documents belonging to other owners have been or are shortly to be returned to their rightful owners. No papers have been or are being destroyed by MOD police.
§ Mr. WilsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) if he will list under convenient headings the categories of documents and files taken by the staff of his Department from Astra plc or any of its subsidiaries between 1 January 1989 and 31 December 1991; and which of them have been(a) retained and (b) destroyed; [30101]
(2) what information he has on the whereabouts of documents relating to the Paveway bomb, as referred to in the minutes of BMARC on 2 November 1988. [30113]
§ Mr. Soames[holding answer 27 June 1995]: The documents and files were seized by the Ministry of Defence police, MDP, pursuant to powers given by the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. In the case of Marcel (1992 Ch. 225), the Court of Appeal decided that where documents were seized by the police under those powers, the police owed a private law duty of confidence to the owners of the documents, and that this private law duty had the effect that no further disclosure of the documents by the police was permitted unless the disclosure was for a purpose contemplated by the 1984 Act, or was necessary in the public interest. The Department has received legal advice that the same principles apply to a description of the documents by 1189W categories. Having regard to that advice I do not propose to list or describe the documents seized by the Ministry of Defence police.
A re-sort of the seized property store, expedited by the deputy chief constable of the MDP police, has accounted for all schedules of documents seized from the Astra group of companies by the MOD during the course of corruption investigations involving those companies. All Astra company documents have been returned to the liquidators; other documents belonging to other owners have been or are shortly to be returned to their rightful owners. No papers have been or are being destroyed by MOD police.
§ Mr. WilsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list those occasions on which Ministers were in contact with Ministry of Defence police concerning the affairs of Astra plc between 1989 and 1991, naming the Minister in each case. [30109]
§ Mr. Soames[holding answer 27 June 1995]: So far as is known, there are none.
§ Mr. Gordon PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence who was the person directly responsible for losing the BMARC documents which were found on Saturday 17 June; and who rediscovered them. [30610]
§ Mr. Soames[holding answer 29 June 1995]: An inquiry has been initiated by the Deputy Chief Constable of the Ministry of Defence Police into the separation by MDP in its property store of documents relating to its investigations into the Astra group of companies. I shall write to the hon. Member when the report is finalised.