Public Confidence in the Media and Police

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Wednesday 20th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Robert Buckland (South Swindon) (Con)]

There have been many constructive and thoughtful contributions to the debate. The tone that we need to strike, and which, in the main, has been struck, is one of great humility. There is nothing worse than the British Parliament having a periodic fit of morality, particularly bearing in mind the context of the debate and the disastrous cocktail of criminality and neglect that has resulted in appalling acts committed as long ago as 2003 coming to light in only the past few weeks. That should be the tone of our remarks, and we should remember that the vast majority of the police and of journalists are doing their best. They do a good job. A small minority in both cases have, unfortunately, brought both professions into disrepute.

Much has been made of the Harbottle & Lewis file, and the assertion of legal professional privilege. My understanding is that privilege would apply to correspondence between solicitor and client, but that if third-party documents disclose the furtherance of a crime, for example, they would not be subject to such privilege. The truth—I have not seen the file, and I do not know what it contains—is probably that there is a case for a thorough review of the file to ascertain whether privilege can be asserted by its owner, News International. If documents in the file clearly disclose the furtherance of a crime, they should be disclosed. My strong advice to News International is that if the spirit of the Murdochs’ evidence yesterday is to be followed through, disclosure of the file would be in their interests and the wider public interest.

The events of the past two weeks have caused us to focus on phone hacking, but the spectrum is much wider than that. Only a few months ago—perhaps even more recently—we were looking at super-injunctions and privacy, which are part of that spectrum. At one end are people, usually with fame and means, who can assert their privacy by the use of injunctions and occasionally super-injunctions. At the other are ordinary members of the public—innocent people—who are living quietly and getting on with their lives, sometimes subject to tragedy, who find themselves at the butt-end of criminality and abuse by powerful media operations.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

We must also consider something else that has not been raised in our debate. Does my hon. Friend agree that communications companies have a role in ensuring that communications are kept secure so that people who wish to transgress and break the law cannot do so?

[Mr Buckland]

Absolutely right. I am grateful to my hon. Friend for making that point.

There is a sense of something old and something new about this debate. The old aspect of it is the ever-present role of the press baron in our public life. A hundred years ago it was Lord Harmsworth, then it was Beaverbrook, then Maxwell and Murdoch in latter times. That is not new. It is lamentable and wrong, and the House seems to agree that it is time for a change. I welcome that.

There is also something new—the unprecedented vulnerability of private data. Information is the new valuable property of the modern age. We have spent our years guarding our homes and our possessions against theft and burglary, but have forgotten and neglected the sometimes even more valuable private information that can be used in a way that can seriously prejudice the lives of ordinary people. My hon. Friend is right to mention communications companies and the ease of access that there seems to be to telephone data and other personal information. That is wrong, and there is now an historic opportunity to get things right.

I welcome the judicial inquiry, and I remind the House that we have set up a Joint Committee of both Houses to look at privacy, super-injunctions and the future role of the Press Complaints Commission and the media in that context.