§ Mr. KirkwoodTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence in what circumstances it is his Department's practice, when issuing a public consultation document, to inform those consulted that their responses will be made public unless they explicitly ask for them to be kept confidential; and if he will arrange for his Department to do so in all cases in future.
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§ Mr. HanleyWhen conducting consultation exercises, my Department considers carefully the need to publicise the background to Government decision making and the individual's right to privacy. Decisions on the need to publish are taken on a case by case basis, and responses are not published where an individual has asked that their remarks be treated as confidential. We have no plans to change this policy.