Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 19 November 2020 to Question 114761, if he will release ownership of the original manuscript of the work of Lord Alfred Douglas entitled In Excelsis, written during his time in jail and held in the Public Records Office to the estate of the late Lord Alfred Douglas.

The notebook which contains “In Excelsis” was issued by the Governor of Wormwood Scrubs prison to Lord Alfred Douglas while he was in custody there in 1924. As such the notebook was then, and is now, property of the Crown. As a Public Record in line with the provisions of the Public Records Act 1958, it is permanently preserved as a public record at The National Archives and it would not be appropriate to de-accession it.