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English Libel Law (Parliamentary Proceedings)

By way of a declaration of fact, I should say that I have had four successful claims against newspapers for libel, but that was in cases where what was said was untrue, damaging and not privileged. As I understand it, there is not really a question of whether what is in the Minton report is untrue. To say that hydrogen sulphide in low concentrations is easily detectable, but that at high levels it is not and leads to death is a matter of chemical and biological fact. We have to remember, of course, that it is the population near Abidjan who are the real sufferers. Although the parliamentary issue and the newspaper issue are important, the reason why such waste dumping is illegal throughout the European Union is that it is dangerous, and replicating some kind of refining process on board a ship on the way to Africa is wrong—no one tries to defend it. However, I think that I am right in saying that Trafigura claimed after the second settlement that the waste""could at worst have caused a range of short-term, low-level flu-like symptoms and anxiety."" All that is contradicted by the Minton report, which is available at https://secure.wikileaks.org/wiki/Minton_report:_Trafigura_toxic_dumping_along_the_ Ivory_Coast2C_14_Sep_2006. Three years on from the report that Minton and colleagues were able to produce within a week of being asked what was likely to have happened, I am not sure on what basis the injunctions were sought or what other court proceedings the injunctions were linked to. If it turns out that no serious proceedings would follow, other than the injunctions, we are talking purely about a matter of confidentiality and/or privacy, and actually just embarrassment and, possibly, commercial cost to the principals. That said, I can believe that the judge and the applicants—the solicitors for Trafigura—obtained an order that they did not expect would cover Parliament. Indeed, they did not even think of Parliament, and that may be understandable. What is clear, however, is that from the day that Trafigura's solicitors wrote to the Speaker and to all Members of Parliament, they knew that it did cover Parliament. They did not put their hands up and say, "We're going to withdraw it straight away." They waited another day and took instructions before trying to go along with The Guardian to vary the terms of the injunction. Even then, they did not drop the injunction. I therefore want to make a request, although I am not sure whether I should make it to the Minister and/or the judges and/or the House authorities, including the Speaker. Every injunction in the High Court and every secret injunction should be logged in the High Court so that we no longer get the reply, "We don't know how many injunctions there are." If we do not know how many there are, we do not know what they are. If there is no central register of injunctions, it is time that there was. There should also be a notification of all injunctions that make an injunction secret; otherwise, how can people check whether they exist. When I intervened on the Prime Minister a week ago, I said that in cases that involved children or that involved not just national security, but grave national security, some kind of inhibition on what people say or—where something has been said—on what is reported is appropriate. I am sure that there are House rules covering that, which would make the Speaker, in effect, the super-editor of Hansard. The senior judges should get together, preferably in the open and without waiting for a Law Commission report or even for Select Committees, other than the one that my hon. Friend the Member for Maldon and East Chelmsford (Mr. Whittingdale) has spoken about. They should say that the super-injunction process will be rolled back and used only when it is absolutely essential—not just when it is desirable, not just when people ask for it and not just when a newspaper agrees to it, but when there is some overwhelming reason why it should exist. I do not think that would happen in cases of libel, because there is a pretty good process for post-act claim. We should get away from the idea that a newspaper is a defendant. A newspaper is a respondent. What we are talking about is not a criminal act at the moment. As far as I understand it, we are talking about civil actions. There are many other things that I should like to say, but the key one is this. Health and safety issues—as this case was in its foundation—should not be secret. In aviation, we are perfectly used to having reports of near-misses. If there is ever an air crash, there is an investigation, and the same thing applies on the railways. The number of people put at risk by Trafigura's actions was enormous and swamps all the deaths that we have had in aviation in a year. The processes involved are so well known that they were barred not only in this country, but in Europe. We must share information, and newspapers and the media have a responsibility to make available to all what is known to a few. If we do not establish that principle, those of us in this House will not just look pretty stupid, as we have until now on this issue, although we have made a recovery, but we will fail those for whom we are supposed to be working. We will end up with worse situations, with more people getting away with things for longer, and we will fail to save the lives or improve the well-being of those for whom we should feel responsible—the citizens not just of this country, but of other countries around the world.