Leveson Inquiry

Lord Stoneham of Droxford Excerpts

Wednesday 25th April 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Garden of Frognal]

My Lords, there were many aspects of the matter that need more inquiry and further looking into. On the issue that the noble Lord raised, we need to look at exactly what happened and who was told what, and why. There may well come out of that lessons about what we could learn to do better in future. But he is right that that is certainly an area of concern.

[Lord Stoneham of Droxford]

I congratulate the Minister for handing these questions in difficult circumstances on behalf of the coalition Government. Would she like to join in congratulations to the Department for Business for the way in which it conducted itself during these troubles? Also, while we have had a number of attacks on the role of special advisers, we should also congratulate the behaviour of the special adviser in that particular department during this time.

[Baroness Garden of Frognal]

I thank my noble friend. We can see that there was much that went correctly in the Department for Business—but as we all know, the matter was transferred to the DCMS. On all these things we need to look and see what went right and what went wrong and try to do it better next time. This is definitely not the end of this particular matter.

Courts: Super-injunctions

Lord Stoneham of Droxford Excerpts

Thursday 19th May 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Oakeshott of Seagrove Bay]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they will take to ensure that the public interest is taken into account in the granting of super-injunctions.

[Lord Stoneham of Droxford]

My Lords, in the absence of my noble friend Lord Oakeshott of Seagrove Bay, and with his consent, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in his name on the Order Paper.

[The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord McNally)]

My Lords, the Government recognise the importance of finding the right balance between individual rights to privacy on the one hand and the right to freedom of expression and transparency of official information on the other. The Government will await the report of the Master of the Rolls’ Committee on the use of super-injunctions before deciding on next steps.

[Lord Stoneham of Droxford]

I thank my noble friend for his reply. Does he accept that every taxpayer has a direct public interest in the events leading up to the collapse of the Royal Bank of Scotland? So how can it be right for a super-injunction to hide the alleged relationship between Sir Fred Goodwin and a senior colleague? If true, it would be a serious breach of corporate governance and not even the Financial Services Authority would be allowed to know about it.

[Lord McNally]

I do not think that it is proper for me from this Dispatch Box to comment on individual cases, some of which are before the courts.