§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make available to the public in the Public Record Office the intelligence files relating to Errol Flynn; and if he will make a statement. [120048]
§ Mr. StrawIt is long-standing Government policy neither to confirm nor deny whether the security or intelligence agencies hold records on any individual.
The Security Service is systematically reviewing and where appropriate releasing historical records in accordance with the criteria agreed with the Public Records Office and endorsed by the Advisory Council. The Security Service has now reviewed and released all 77W its files from its archive covering the period of the First World War. The second phase of the programme of release relates to the Security Service's records covering the Second World War. The third tranche of files from this period has just been made public. The Security Service will also be reviewing in due course its inter-war records in preparation for further releases. If there was a Security Service intelligence record relating to Errol Flynn it would be reviewed as part of this process.
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, in a Written Answer on 12 February 1998, Official Report, column 324W, confirmed that the records of the Secret Intelligence Service are not released and set out the reasons for this.