Under this bill,
1. Cabinet office documents relating to national security, and only those relating to national security, may be classified as TOP SECRET. This is to be done at the request of ministers and with the approval of the speaker.
2. At the end of each parliamentary term, such documents will not be released to the public, but will be stored elsewhere.
3. All future Prime Ministers shall be able to request to see such documents, and declassify them if they believe it right to do so.
4. It will become a criminal offense to "leak" the contents of any TOP SECRET documents, regardless as to whether or not the document is currently being discussed in the Cabinet Office or is archived.
So this means that certain cabinet records will not be available to all MP's after their term? And only to the PM, who can decide to release these documents? :\
| QUOTE (Sir William Buttersworth @ Jul 27 2009, 11:23 PM) |
| So this means that certain cabinet records will not be available to all MP's after their term? And only to the PM, who can decide to release these documents? :\ |
Yeah. I know it's annoying, but it has to be done.