Congratulations are due to Mr. Walter for raising this issue. As he said, he raised it in a previous debate on 24 March 2005, and I was aware of that as I prepared for this one. I can respond to the hon. Gentleman's speech through my knowledge of the background and through confirmation, where possible, of his account.

However, I was not clear from his speech whether the letter to the Minister was a recent one or whether it was the letter written on the previous occasion. Similarly, I am not clear whether the freedom of information request that he referred to was recent or related back to the previous situation. Will the hon. Gentleman help me on that?