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BU
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CONFIDENTIAL
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PS/PUS
in Morris
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From: K J Chamberlain Date: 17 June 1993
cc: Sir J Coles
Mr Berman
Mr Hum
Mr Ricketts, HKD
D
SIR PERCY CRADDOCK
1.
1876
I refer to your minute of 16 June to the Legal Adviser concerning the request from the PUS for advice on whether there was any contractual obligation on Sir Percy Craddock to follow the Cabinet Secretary's advice regarding publication of his memoirs. Mr Berman has asked me to deal with this in view of my responsibility for personnel matters. I have also consulted informally the Legal Adviser to the Office of Public Service and Science.
2.
The letters from the Cabinet Office to Sir Percy of 16 January 1984 and 17 April 1985 contained the terms of his appointment as an Adviser on Foreign Affairs to the Prime Minister and constitute his contractual obligations to the Government as his employer. Paragraph 3 of the letter of 16 January 1984 states that Sir Percy's appointment "will be subject to the appropriate terms and conditions of service in force in the Civil Service from time to time" and paragraph 10 refers specifically to the rules governing participation in outside activities involving the use of official information or experience (paragraphs 9910 to 9911 of the Civil Service Pay and Conditions of Service Code) and to the general principles of conduct to which all civil servants are expected to adhere at all times (Code paragraph 9870). Paragraph 9910 of the Code concerns the obligations of civil servants and former civil servants under the Official secrets Act 1989. The question of whether Sir Percy's memoirs are in breach of the Act has, I believe, already been considered and the conclusion reached that they are not in breach of the Act. Paragraph 9911 concerns the duty of confidentiality and re-affirms that the duty continues after a civil servant has left Crown employment. Accordingly a breach of this provision would give rise to a civil claim for breach of contract, as well as a right to an injunction to prevent publication. The question of whether Sir Percy's memoirs breach the duty of confidentiality has also been considered and the conclusion reached that the damaging passages amount essentially to critical comment on the government's current policy rather than disclose specific information covered by a duty of confidentiality. There therefore does not seem much prospect of securing an injunction to restrain publication on grounds of breach of duty of confidentiality. Indeed any attempt to obtain an injunction is likely to rebound against us and only serve to gain publicity for the publication of Sir Percy's memoirs.
CONFIDENTIAL