§ Mr. MackinlayTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) by whom and in what circumstances a journalist was given access to interview Darius Guppy in prison, for and on behalf ofHello! magazine; and if he will make a statement;
(2) when the Prison Service learned that Darius Guppy was to be interviewed in prison by a journalist;
(3) on what date Darius Guppy was interviewed in prison for or on behalf of Hello! magazine;
(4) when and what action was taken by him or the Prison Service on discovering that payments had been made by Hello! magazine for rights to an interview with Darius Guppy in prison.
§ Mr. Peter LloydResponsibility for this matter has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
255WLetter from Derek Lewis to Mr. Andrew Mackinlay, dated 26 January 1994:
The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Questions about the article appearing in Hello! magazine on Darius Guppy.We do not know when or by what means Hello! conducted the interview with Mr. Guppy, although it could not have been from a prison cell as suggested in the article. He was not given permission to be interviewed in prison, and was not visited in prison by anyone identified as a journalist. The Prison Service was not aware Mr. Guppy had been interviewed until the article was published in Hello!I understand that the Press Complaints Commission found Hello! to be in breach of its Code of Practice in making payment for the interview. I similarly deplore such practice. However, I understand payment for the interview was not made to Mr. Guppy but to third parties. Consequently, it would not be a matter over which the prison has any jurisdiction.