§ Mr. KirkwoodTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security 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.
§ Mr. HagueIt is already normal practice in this Department for public consultation documents to include the advice that comments received may be made publicly available unless confidentiality is specifically requested.
The results of consultation exercises may be made available in summary form, or responses may be published in full, depending on the nature of the issue and the strength and diversity of opinion.