New provisions on the disclosure of information
Adoption and Children Bill
11:00 am
Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury, Conservative)
Amanda Finlay, I am sorry to put you on the spot, but I asked you a question on 24 April in Committee, and you promised to come back to me in writing. I shall therefore ask it to you again, although I know that we have had a little thing called a general election in between. To quote Sir Ronald Waterhouse:
``the Law Commission should inquire into the position of local authorities in relation to the publication of reports commissioned by them with a view to strengthening the defence of qualified privilege (or widening it) and giving guidance at least on their relationship with their insurers''.
The point that I made then which underlies this is that it is not a legal requirement for local authorities to tell the truth, which astonished me when I discovered it but in fact it never has been. Furthermore, local authorities told us off the record that in some cases they can be required by their insurers to lie, and they can be in breach of their insurance policies if they do not do so. I see the hon. Member for Cardiff, West nodding. We are dealing with damaged children, and although one can see where the local authorities are coming from it is by any standards unsatisfactory that that should be the position.