§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will cause an investigation to be made to ascertain how the London Broadcasting 770W Company was able on Wednesday 21 July 1982 to broadcast, at intervals from 3.00 pm, extracts quoted from Assistant Commissioner Dellow's report of inquiry into security matters, which was not reported by him to the House of Commons until after 3.30 pm on that date.
§ Mr. WhitelawNo. For the convenience of hon. Members I arranged for copies of a detailed account of the incident at Buckingham Palace on 9 July to be made available in advance of my statement.
§ Mr. Staintonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what priority was given to the wiring of the alarm button from Her Majesty's bedroom, mentioned in paragraph 8 of the Dellow summary report, in view of the statement in paragraph 17 that improvements in security since the murder of Earl Mountbatten were implemented in order of priority.
§ Mr. WhitelawThe installation of this alarm button was not part of the initial survey but one of the measures resulting from the continuing review of arrangements referred to in paragraph 17 of the summary. Once it had been requested it was given high priority and the work was proceeding as quickly as possible.
§ Mr. Staintonasked the Secretary of State for the Flame Department whether he is yet in a position to announce the results of his considerations promised to the hon. Member for Croydon, South (Sir W. Clark) on 21 July, Official Report, column 402–3, regarding the law of trespass with reference to Buckingham Palace.
§ Mr. WhitelawNot yet. I will announce our conclusions as soon as I am in a position to do so.
§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the various police officers who have resigned from the police force due to matters connected with the several incidents affecting failures of security at Buckingham Palace will be able to claim their pensions; what the amounts will be; and whether these will be on an indexed basis.
§ Mr. WhitelawThe police officers who have resigned are entitled to receive the appropriate award under the Police Pensions Regulations 1973. It would be contrary to practice to disclose details of the individual pension awards. Police pensions are index-linked.
§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will make a statement upon the efforts, as made by the Special Air Service, to penetrate the security services introduced since the more recent Buckingham Palace incident; why they were able to do this without discovery and without setting off the electronic devices; and whether, in view of these tests during the latter part of July and since the revision of the security check-up, he can state that the service is satisfactory.
§ Mr. WhitelawThe responsibility for Royalty protection rests with the police. Comment on speculation about their arrangements and contacts can lead to disclosures which do not serve the interests of security.