§ Mr. Newensasked the Attorney-General if, in view of the fact that political reports prepared by intelligence organisations during the Second World War are available for public scrutiny and study after a period of 30 years, he will now consider making available similar reports prepared by similar organisations in the years following the end of the war which have remained closed, despite the expiry of the 30-year period.
The Attorney-GeneralThis will be considered within the terms of the answer given by my hon. Friend the Undersecretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs to my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Perry Barr (Mr. Rooker) on 5 February—[Vol. 962, c. 17–18]. As he made clear, however, the documents to be released cannot be Identified until the necessary reviewing arrangements are completed.
§ Mr. Newensasked the Attorney-General if he will arrange for documents, regarded as being of too sensitive a nature for release for public scrutiny and study at the Public Record Office after 30 years, to be temporarily removed from files which would otherwise be open to the public and replaced when a period deemed adequate has expired, in order to prevent large numbers of inoffensive records from being withheld for unnecessarily lengthy periods.
The Attorney-GeneralThe practice described by my hon. Friend is already adopted on a limited scale where it does not impair the coherence of the record.