§ Mr. HancockTo ask the Solicitor General pursuant to her answer of 8 March 2004,Official Report, column 314W, on Katharine Gun, if the Attorney-General will place copies of the correspondence between Ministers and himself on the Katharine Gun case in the Library. [164241]
§ The Solicitor-GeneralThe correspondence between the Attorney-General and Ministers relates to the "Shawcross" exercise undertaken by the Attorney-General. The Attorney wrote to ministerial colleagues asking for views and any issues which may impact upon his decision whether or not it was in the public interest to consent to the prosecution of Katharine Gun for an offence under section 1 of the Official Secrets Act. The correspondence falls within exemptions 1, 2 and 4 of Part II of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information. The correspondence includes information whose disclosure would harm national security and was a consultation between Ministers where their advice and views were sought. The Attorney-General considers that to disclose this would harm the frankness and candour of internal discussion. He has concluded the harm likely to arise from disclosure of this material outweighs the public interest in making the information available. In addition the correspondence related to legal proceedings and therefore comes under exemption 4.
Copies of correspondence between Ministers and the Attorney-General on the Katharine Gun case will not therefore be placed in the Library.