Public Interest Immunity Certificates

HC Deb 30 January 2001 vol 362 cc172-3W

Sir Nicholas Lyell

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many public interest immunity certificates(a) he, (b) Ministers of State, (c) junior Ministers and (d) civil servants in his Department have signed in each calendar year from 30 May 1997. [147730]

Mr. Straw

In the calendar year from 30 May 1997, I signed seven public interest immunity certificates. In addition, one certificate was signed by a Minister of State at the Home Office.

In the calendar year from 30 May 1998, I signed six such certificates.

In the calendar year from 30 May 1999, I signed seven such certificates.

In the calendar year from 30 May 2000, I have signed four such certificates.

No such certificates have been signed by junior Ministers or civil servants in this period nor, with the exception of one such certificate signed in the calendar year from 30 May 1997, by a Minister of State.

These figures do not include certificates which may, exceptionally, have been issued and considered by the court without notice of their existence being given to the other parties in the case.