§ Mr. Ivan LewisTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if the injunction againstThe Mail on Sunday remains in force following the publication of further disclosures from David Shayler on 2 November. [14900]
§ Mr. StrawYes. The purpose of the injunction which the High Court granted againstThe Mail on Sunday was to prevent it from publishing any further material which could damage national security. The terms of the injunction restrained the newspaper from publishing any information provided by Mr. Shayler, but expressly did not apply to the publication of any material in respect of which the Crown serves written notice that it does not seek to restrain publication. The Editor of The Mail on Sunday provided me with a draft of the article which he 216W proposed to publish well in advance of the publication date. This enabled me to obtain an assessment from the Director General of the Security Service, who advised me that the article would not cause damage to national security if it were published. Notice was therefore given that we would not seek to restrain publication. The fact that the article was substantially wrong is another matter. The issue here is not necessarily whether a story is true or false as it is quite possible to conceive circumstances in which false accusations might nevertheless cause damage to national security.
This is entirely consistent with the position which the Government have adopted all along. Our concern is to ensure that nothing is published which is likely to damage national security. Former members of the Security and Intelligence Services are in a position to make disclosures which intentionally or unintentionally can cause real damage to national security. The Government cannot stand by and let that happen. We have, however, never sought to suppress criticism of the Security Service—even where that criticism is misguided or inaccurate—provided that national security is not damaged.