§ Mr. Grimondasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will seek to amend the law of libel to absolve distributors of liability for libels in magazines and newspapers.
§ Mr. Harry EwingNo. This question was considered by Faulks Committee on defamation whose report (Cmnd. 5909) was published in March 1975. The Committee noted that the defence of innocent dissemination was available in Scotland where distributors did not know of, nor were negligently ignorant of, defamatory material in publications they distributed, but recommended against any change in the law to give distributors immunity from the law of defamation.