No 10: Not sensible to bin papers

14 October 2011 Last updated at 07:35 ET

The West Dorset MP says the papers were not of a sensitive nature

Downing Street says Oliver Letwin’s decision to dispose of official paperwork in park bins was “clearly not sensible” and he will not do it again.

Mr Letwin was photographed by the Daily Mirror disposing of private letters and other papers over five days.

Terrorism-related correspondence was among items binned, the paper claimed.

The MP’s office said the papers were not “sensitive” but the information commissioner will look into whether data protection laws were breached.

Labour have accused Mr Letwin of “cavalier” behaviour and urged Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell to look into whether the “strict procedures” for dealing with government documents had been broken.

Mr Letwin, who is in charge of developing government policies within the Cabinet Office, was seen in several separate images throwing paperwork in waste bins near Downing Street.

On one occasion the West Dorset MP was photographed handing documents to a refuse collector.

‘Personal and confidential’

The Mirror claimed one document described how Parliament’s intelligence and security committee (ISC) – which examines the work of MI5 and MI6 and GCHQ – “failed to get the truth” on Britain’s involvement in extraordinary rendition.

Human rights groups say the practice of secretly transporting terrorist abroad for interrogation became commonplace after the 11 September attacks on the US but the last Labour government denied any involvement in the practice. Sir Peter Gibson is heading up an inquiry into alleged involvement in torture by UK security agencies.

In one letter reportedly thrown away, Sir Malcolm Rifkind – the chairman of the ISC – is urged by a fellow Tory MP to revamp the body to “bolster public confidence in its work and in Parliament’s ability to hold intelligence services to account”.

The letter’s author Andrew Tyrie – chairman of the all-parliamentary committee on extraordinary rendition – notes that their correspondence is “personal and confidential”.

The newspaper said that although Mr Letwin tore up the letter, in which Mr Tyrie also questioned the independence of the ISC from government, its contents were still legible.

‘Not classified’

However, Sir Malcolm – a former foreign secretary – told the BBC the letter “did not amount to a row of beans in terms of secrecy” and was just correspondence between two backbenchers.

The Mirror says the discarded documents were all dated between July 2010 and September 2011 and included correspondence which touched on subjects such as al-Qaeda’s links in Pakistan, the government’s flagship Big Society agenda and the future of the Forensic Science Service.

The Mirror said it saw Mr Letwin disposing of the documents in St James’s Park, which is adjacent to Downing Street and the Treasury, between 7 September and 10 October.

Downing Street said the Cabinet Office would look into whether any of the documents concerned were sensitive.

“Our understanding is that there were no classified documents,” a No 10 spokeswoman said. “Most of the business which Mr Letwin does in the park is constituency-based.

Asked what the prime minister’s view was, the spokeswoman said: “Clearly, it’s not a sensible way to dispose of documents.

“Mr Letwin has agreed he will not dispose of documents in this way again.”

Proper procedures

The Office of the Information Commissioner said it would be contacting Mr Letwin, The Mirror and Whitehall officials to find out what had happened and stressed it regarded breaches of data protection very seriously.

The Commissioner has the power to fine organisations and individuals up to £500,000 if it found anyone had suffered serious distress as a result of data protection breaches.

Separately, Labour have written to Sir Gus O’Donnell, head of the civil service, to ask him to investigate how many documents the cabinet minister threw out in the park and whether any of them were classified.

“I am sure will agree that ministers have a duty to follow proper procedures and lead by example,” Shadow Cabinet Office Minister Michael Dugher says in the letter.

“This has clearly not happened in the case of Mr Letwin. As aware, civil servants are subject to disciplinary procedures if the proper processes are not adhered to. It cannot be that there is one rule for ministers and another for everyone .”

But the criticism was dismissed by Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith, who wrote on the Twitter web: “How is Oliver Letwin working in the park newsworthy? Whoever in Labour has asked for (yet another) inquiry should be put to sleep.”

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