§ Mr. BoatengTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, pursuant to his answer of 20 January,Official Report, column 719, under what statutory authority the arrangement regarding the passage of information on divorce cases was established.
Mr. John M. TaylorAs I stated in my answer of 20 January, an arrangement was made last November between officials from my Department and from the Home Office immigration and nationality department to provide the information specified in my earlier answer.
This was an informal arrangement arrived at between officials. No legal advice was sought at the time. When the matter subsequently became known to senior officials, legal advice was sought which showed that the informal arrangement was entered into without statutory authority, and it was therefore terminated immediately.
As I stated previously, no information supplied to the Home Office has in fact been used by it. The Home Office has destroyed all notifications in its possession and has confirmed that it has neither made nor retained any separate record of the information from the courts.