Wanless Review

Kevin Brennan Excerpts

Tuesday 11th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

My hon. Friend makes a very important point. It is precisely those sorts of issues that have led people to query what has happened, question the attitude taken to these matters and ask the very question he raises about why there do not seem to have been any prosecutions off the back of it. Wanless and Whittam were specifically asked to look at how the police and prosecuting authorities dealt with any reference that had been made from the Home Office because, as I said earlier, in my view it is not good enough for the Home Office to say, “Well, we’ve reviewed what the Home Office did.” We need to know what happened to the evidence that the Home Office passed on. It is in looking at what further action was taken that I have gone back to Wanless and Whittam in the letter I sent them today.

[Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab)]

Can the Home Secretary shed any light on recent press reports that the Dickens dossier might be held in the files of Barbara Castle at the Bodleian library in Oxford?

[Mrs May]

I am unable at this stage to shed any further light on that, but obviously that will be looked into. If there is evidence sitting somewhere like that, we want to ensure that it is available to the inquiry.