Friday, December 05, 2008

Pssst!

The Times chose to lead its letters page on Thursday with one from Maurice Frankel, which reminds us that the Official Secrets Act of 1911 was replaced by a 1989 Act. Unauthorised leaks now constitute a criminal offence only if they are about security & intelligence etc; other leaks might lead, at most, to disciplinary action

This cleared up one small mystery – why Damian Green was arrested on suspicion of an obscure common law offence.

But it also came as a bit of a shock – if I had known about the 1989 change in the first place I had completely forgotten about it

I first signed the Official Secrets Act when, as a student, I had a temporary job delivering the Christmas mail – in those days all post office workers (including those who worked for what is now BT) were civil servants. I felt suitably admonished, but also mystified – what secrets might lurk among the cards?

Come to think of it though, it might be seen as a kind of privacy law – you must not tell anyone about the delicious news that snobby Mrs Smith from number 4 was getting red bills from the electricity board

When I went to work in Whitehall I was required to sign all over again. I was told that technically it applied to all information which I acquired through work, even the number of coat hooks on the back of the office door. And also that the law applied to everybody, civil servant or not; signing was just a way of making sure that we knew

A letter I received when I left asked me to make sure I had returned any property which belonged to the department, reminded me about the Official Secrets Act, & reiterated the instruction not to travel to certain countries without first seeking security advice

Until yesterday I would not have dared reveal that last paragraph. As I have been known to joke to friends when I pretended to have interesting things to reveal, not only could I be sent to the Tower, but they could be sent there too, just for listening to me