Stephen Ward

Lord Hughes of Woodside Excerpts

Thursday 16th January 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

My Lords, I was not around in 1964 to read the Times but I shall certainly look it up in the archives. Turning to the specific question, the issue remains that full transcripts are not automatically created and certainly, as I said in my earlier Answer, that is the case here. Six files are held by the National Archives relating to the Stephen Ward trial; five of these are open to the public, so there is partial availability. One file is closed. The closed file does not contain a full transcript of the hearing. However, it contains partial records of some elements of the hearing, including evidence given by individuals from the box. These records contain sensitive information about living individuals and also unsubstantiated allegations and it would be inappropriate to release those records at this time.

[Lord Hughes of Woodside (Lab)]

My Lords, I wonder if the Minister can help us. Can he tell us what the sensitive information is?

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

Unfortunately, I cannot. As I said, it is not available publicly. People may speculate but I think that I have been clear.