HC Deb 17 December 1997 vol 303 c170W
Mr. Loughton

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what factors underlie his Department's retention of the manuscript of "In Excelsis" containing writings by Lord Alfred Douglas.[21334]

Mr. Straw

The manuscript of the poem "In Excelsis" is contained in a notebook which was issued by the Governor of Wormwood Scrubs prison to Lord Alfred Douglas while he was in custody there in 1924. The notebook was then, and is now, owned by the Crown. It has not been retained by my Department, but is held at the Public Record Office at Kew, where it is open for public inspection.