§ Dr. HarrisTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, pursuant to his answer of 10 January 2000,Official Report, column 32W, what restrictions were placed on contractors carrying out research projects funded by his Department in 1999 in respect of them discussing their findings with journalists (a) before and (b) after publication. [108205]
960W
Probation Board for Northern Ireland Category of employed Number of Protestant male employees Number of Roman Catholic male employees Number of male employees whose Community cannot be determined Number of Protestant female employees Number of Roman Catholic female employees Number of female employees whose Community cannot be determined Managers and administrators 6 7 5 9 5 5 Professional occupations 19 23 6 35 33 20 Associate professional and technical occupations 0 0 0 0 1 0 Clerical and secretarial occupations 5 5 3 52 32 10
§ Mr. IngramFurther to my reply to him of 10 January, contracts for research projects funded by this Department generally carry a clause highlighting the obligations of the contractor under the Official Secrets Act and/or a confidentiality clause preventing the contractor from printing, publishing or disclosing information gained during the course of the contract without the written consent of the Department.
Twenty four contracts did not contain restrictions which prevented the contractor from discussing the findings with journalists until after publication because the letting organisation. Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, only part-funded the research. The copyright in these instances remain with the researcher.