Mountbatten diaries

Motion Text

That this House notes with concern that the personal diaries of Lord and Lady Mountbatten were purchased from the family's Broadlands Archive Trust, a decade ago, by Southampton University with a substantial sum of public money including almost £2 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund; that, until the sale to the University, the Mountbatten family had made the diaries available to historians upon request; that Lady Mountbatten was never a public servant and consequently her writings are not subject to Freedom of Information restrictions; that in December 2019 the Information Commissioner's Office ordered the University to disclose the Mountbatten diaries and correspondence; that this continues to be resisted at the apparent direction of the Cabinet Office, citing FOI exemptions but refusing to identify the criteria relevant to the Mountbatten diaries; that it is 42 years since the death of Lord Mountbatten and 61 years since that of Lady Mountbatten; that it is deeply regrettable that their distinguished biographer, Dr Andrew Lownie, has so far had to pay £250,000 pursuing a campaign for the diaries' release to historians; and accordingly calls for their disclosure for publication without further obfuscation and delay.