§ Mr. Bodyasked the Minister of State for Defence whether he will ask Press and television not to make public the fact of a soldier's death in Northern Ireland until the next of kin of the particular soldier have been notified.
§ Mr. BlakerIt is our policy not to release the name of a soldier killed or very seriously injured until confirmation has been received that the next of kin have been informed. We are very conscious of the anxiety caused to relatives of soldliers serving in Northern Ireland when the fact of a casualty is announced, but we have succeeded in greatly speeding up the process of notifying next of kin with consequent reduction in the stress caused to relatives of soldiers not affected. However, the time taken must sometimes greatly exceed the norm, for reasons outside our control.
We have had discussions with the television and broadcasting authorities; they understand the problem and give us every co-operation in not releasing a name prematurely, but it would be unrealistic to expect that they could adopt a policy of holding back all news that an incident involving casualties had taken place until the next of kin had been notified.