§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 8 July,Official Report, column 391, if the review of the oldest document retained in the Home Office has been completed. [12865]
§ Mr. StrawThe review has been completed and I am pleased to say that the papers will be transferred to the Public Record Office and made available for public inspection later this year, subject to minor extractions. The extractions are intended to protect the identities of individual informants who put themselves at risk in the service of the state. It would not be in the public interest to reveal the identities of such individuals, since to do so might deter potential informants from assisting the authorities today. Of course, all the agents named in these records have long since died, but in many cases members of their families will still be alive and particularly in the context of Ireland, where memories can be deep and bitter, publication of the names cold cause unnecessary and gratuitous distress or worse.