§ Mr. WilshireTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will publish a list of all those official documents of the last administration which have been seen by(a) him, (b) other Ministers in his Department, (c) special advisers in his Department and (d) non-career civil servants appointed since May 1997 in his Department. [92183]
§ Mr. Chris Smith[holding answer 20 July 1999]: A large number of official documents were generated during the period of the previous administration, many of which were published or put in the public domain. Since May 1997, the Department has been guided by the convention governing access to the papers of a 619W previous administration, as set out in the then Prime Minister's reply to a written question on 24 January 1980, Official Report, columns 305–07.