§ Mr. SedgemoreTo ask the Attorney-General what criteria are used when deciding whether or not to grant2W immunity from prosecution under section 2 of the Official Secrets Act 1911 to persons; writing books about the security or intelligence services.
§ The Attorney-GeneralMy policy in relation to the granting of immunity from prosecution in any case is the same as that of my predecessor. He stated, in a reply of 27 January 1986 to a question from the hon. Member for Middlesbrough (Mr. Bell), that his policy was to authorise an assurance being given to a witness that he would himself not be prosecuted only if he was satisfied that it was unlikely that the witness would otherwise be willing to give a full and truthful account of what he knew, and that it was necessary, if the true facts were to be established or, as the case may be, if evidence was to be obtained which might permit proceedings to be instituted against others, that the witness should give that account. Such an assurance was always conditional upon his telling the truth. As my predecessor explained, it is often a relevant consideration that there is no prospect of criminal proceedings being instituted against an individual, whatever his own anxieties on that matter, or that there is no evidence against him upon which such proceedings could be founded other than what he himself may say.
§ Mr. SedgemoreTo ask the Attorney-General if immunity from prosecution under section 2 of the Official Secrets Act 1911 has been granted since 1979 to any author publishing books on the work of the security or intelligence services.