Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 25 June (HL714), why information about the cost of security protection for former Prime Ministers and Deputy Prime Ministers could compromise the security of the individuals concerned; and whether such security protection extends to when they are abroad.

I refer to my previous written answer: disclosure of such information could compromise the integrity of and affect the security of the individuals concerned. Disclosing such details would not only reveal tactical policing decisions, but would compromise the safety of those arrangements since it would enable those wishing to circumvent them to form an assessment of the level of policing and protection being provided. Decisions about the protective security of former Prime Ministers abroad are made by the Cabinet Office chaired, Royal and Ministerial Visits Committee for Overseas Travel.