Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by John Hemming (Liberal Democrat). It was answered on Tuesday, 17 May 2011 on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

Injunctions (Privacy)

Question: Some of these injunctions serve to prevent information from being passed to the police or other regulators. Does the Secretary of State believe the law should be changed so that regulators can always have information passed to them?

Answer: That is one of the arguments which the judge who decides whether to grant the injunction will no doubt have in mind. Whether it is reasonable and in the public interest for the injunction to be granted is what the judge is meant to try to establish. The question for us is how we can make that clearer and more defensible, and how we can know more about what is happening so that we are all satisfied that injunctions are granted only in cases where the right to privacy of the individual is, indeed, being interfered with unjustly, but I know of the hon. Gentleman's interest in this topic, and we will bear his views in mind—

Secondary information