Natalie Elphicke
Main Page: Natalie Elphicke (Labour - Dover)Department Debates - View all Natalie Elphicke's debates with the Ministry of Defence
(5 months ago)
Commons ChamberI will not be drawn on precise times, but it will not be years.
My constituent Oliver Richardson, now the mayor of Deal, was just 21 when he survived the sinking of the Galahad. Forty years on, he says that there is no reason for this supposed secrecy and that many people neither were offered, nor wanted, confidentiality in relation to saying what they had seen. Our armed forces serve us all, and we must honour that service by giving them and the families of those lost and injured on the Galahad the answers they need. I urge the Minister to release all of the Falklands Galahad papers at pace.
The Government will do everything we can in the interests of transparency, but I am sure that my hon. Friend appreciates that we, like everybody else, are bound by the Data Protection Act.