§ Mr. MackinlayTo ask the Prime Minister if Mr. Alan Clark was telephone tapped during his period in office as a Minister of the Crown.
§ The Prime MinisterThe policy on the interception of the telephones of Members of Parliament remains as stated in 1966 by the then Prime Minister, the Lord Wilson of Rievaulx, and as applied by successive Governments since. In answer to questions on 17 November 1966, Lord Wilson said that he had given instructions that there was to be no tapping of the telephones of Members of Parliament and that, if there were a development which required such a change of policy, he would at such moment as seemed compatible with the security of the country, on his own initiative make a statement in the House about it. As I said in reply to a similar question by the hon. Member for Blaenau Gwent (Mr. Smith) on 29 June 1992 at column375, the Government regard this undertaking as still applying to both postal and telephone interception.