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Lord Alton of Liverpool (CB)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 12 October 2026

Debate

Public Office (Accountability) Bill

Contribution

My Lords, I support the amendments that have just been spoken to and moved by the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, and spoken to so ably by the noble Lord, Lord Wills. I am not going to make a long speech, but nuclear test victims have been mentioned. Back in the 1980s—literally in the middle of the night in 1984 and in 1985—in the House of Commons, I raised the case of the 20,000 British servicemen who had been deliberately put in harm’s way. Again and again, information that should have been disclosed was withheld. I therefore agree entirely that, where records are available, they must be made available to people who feel they have been badly treated by the state. I will refer also to the case of Graham Gaskin, who was in social care in Liverpool. I have raised his case on a number of occasions, including in an Adjournment debate I tabled in another place. He ended up having to steal his own records from Liverpool social services and go all the way to the European courts to finally get the law changed so that people who have been in the care of social services can subsequently have their records provided for them. It must never be necessary for people to go to those lengths.

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