Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her Department's policy is on responding to parliamentary questions where the subject file or letter is within the scope of the Official Secrets Act 1989.

I refer the Member for Bassetlaw to the publicly available guidance on
answering Parliamentary Questions available at:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/drafting-answers-to-parliamentary-questions-g
uidance.

The guidance makes clear that Ministers should be as open as possible
with Parliament and the public and only withhold information where its
disclosure would not be in the public interest. Such public interest would be
determined with the relevant legislation in mind (Freedom of Information, Data
Protection, and the Official Secrets Acts etc).