§ Mr. Pargiterasked the Attorney-General if he is aware that Mr. Frederick Beezley, who, whilst an officer of his Department, was concerned in the investigation of the alleged infringements of the air safety regulations by Independent Air Travel Limited, and was responsible for a deliberate delay in the investigations in order to make it impossible to take legal action against the company, is now a director of Falcon Airways Limited of which the managing director is the same man who was managing director of Independent Air Travel Limited at the time of the inquiry; and if he will now refer the activities of Mr. Beezley in this matter to the Director of Public Prosecutions with a view to the institution of proceedings against him.
§ The Attorney-GeneralNo. The hon. Member has made a very serious allegation against Mr. Beezley, but he has produced no evidence to support it and I am satisfied that it is in fact completely without foundation. Mr. Beezley has never been an officer of my Department; at the material time he was on the staff of the Director of Public Prosecutions, but he was not concerned at any stage with the investigation of the alleged infringements of the air safety regulations by Independent Air Travel Limited and he was not responsible in any way for the manner in which those investigations were carried out. There was in fact no delay in carrying out the investigations, which, as was made clear during the debate in this House on 20th July, 1959, were completed in time to permit the institution of criminal proceedings if that course had been thought desirable in the public interest.