§ Mr. HancockTo ask the Solicitor-General what discussions the Attorney-General has had in the last 12 months with the Secretary of State for Defence on the Katharine Gun case. [158779]
§ The Solicitor-GeneralThe Attorney-General when considering whether or not to grant consent to the prosecution of Katharine Gun for an offence under section 1 of the Official Secrets Act conducted a Shawcross exercise. He wrote to the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in view of his departmental interest and copied it to other interested Ministerial colleagues, including the Secretary of State for Defence. This exercise is designed to enable the Attorney to be informed of Ministerial colleagues' views of the public interest considerations in the case that are within their particular Ministerial responsibilities. He took them into consideration when deciding whether to give his consent. The decision to consent to the prosecution was the Attorney-General's alone.
There have been no discussions between the Attorney-General and the Secretary of State for Defence over the Katharine Gun case in the last 12 months.
§ Mr. CashTo ask the Solicitor-General pursuant to her answer of 2 March, what the evidential deficiency was to which she refers as reason in the case of Katharine Gun for having exercised discretion not to enter a nolle prosequi; and if she will lay the papers to which this relates, including those referred to by the Attorney-General in the House of Lords on 26 February, in the Library. [159190]
§ The Solicitor-General[holding answer 5 March 2004]: The decision to offer no further evidence against Katharine Gun was made by the Crown Prosecution Service as an independent prosecuting authority. It was a decision taken solely on legal grounds and in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors. There was, in this case, a clear prima facie breach of section 1 of the Official Secrets Act 1989. However Senior Treasury Counsel prosecuting this case gave advice, with which the Director of Public Prosecutions fully concurred, that there was no longer a realistic prospect of convicting Katharine Gun. The evidential deficiency related to the prosecution's inability, within the current statutory framework. to disprove the defence of necessity to be raised on the particular facts of this case.
I am not sure what papers the hon. Member is referring to but counsels' advice etc are the subject of legal privilege and so it would not be appropriate for me to place them in the Library.