§ Mr. AitkenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if, in the light of legal submissions made before the House of Lords inThe Scotsman case on 16 May, he has any plans to amend section 5 of the Official Secrets Act 1989 in order to make it an offence for a newspaper editor to publish information disclosed from a former Crown servant acting without authority; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. HurdI have no plans to amend the Official Secrets Act 1989. Under section 5(1)(a)(iii) of the 1989 Act, the offence of publishing information resulting from an unauthorised disclosure already applies where the information was disclosed by a person to whom it was entrusted on terms requiring it to be held in confidence or in circumstances in which it could reasonably be expected to be so held, if the person who entrusted the information was a Crown servant or Government contractor, whether or not the person to whom it was entrusted was himself a Crown servant at the time.