Justice and Security Bill — Clause 8 — Balance National Security vs Public Interest in Requests to Withhold Information From Parties in Civil Court Cases — 4 Mar 2013 at 22:13

Stewart Jackson MP, Peterborough voted to prevent the disclosure of material if the court considers disclosure would be damaging to the interests of national security, even if that damage would be outweighed by the interests of justice.

The majority of MPs voted to prevent the disclosure of material in civil court cases if the court considers disclosure would be damaging to the interests of national security, even if that damage would be outweighed by the interests of justice.

The majority of MPs voted to retain an absolute exemption from disclosure to anyone but the court, Secretary of State, and special advocates, of material damaging to the interests of national security.

This relates to "closed material proceedings" which allow relevant national security-sensitive material held by a party to civil court proceedings to be taken into account through disclosure of the material to both the court and a special advocate representing the other party or parties' interests as the other parties are not themselves permitted to see the material.

MPs were considering the Justice and Security Bill[1]. The amendment rejected in this vote was:

  • Amendment 38, page 7, line 18, at end add
  • ‘and that damage outweighs the public interest in the fair and open administration of justice’.

Had it not been rejected this amendment would have added the above text to Clause 8 of the Bill[2]. It sought to modify the required court rules to be followed in cases where the closed material procedure is used, and specifically to extend the rule in Clause 8 (1)(c) which stated the rules must secure:

  • that the court is required to give permission for material not to be disclosed if it considers that the disclosure of the material would be damaging to the interests of national security,

The amendment would have changed the absolute requirement to order material not to be disclosed if doing so would be damaging to national security with a requirement to balance that damage against the public interest in the fair and open administration of justice.

Debate in Parliament | Source |

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Party Summary

Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.

What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.

What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.

What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.

PartyMajority (No)Minority (Aye)BothTurnout
Alliance0 10100.0%
Con252 (+1 tell) 4084.3%
DUP4 0050.0%
Green0 10100.0%
Lab0 204 (+2 tell)079.8%
LDem39 (+1 tell) 7082.5%
PC0 30100.0%
SDLP0 2066.7%
SNP0 5083.3%
Total:295 227081.9%

Rebel Voters - sorted by party

MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division

Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote

NameConstituencyPartyVote
David DavisHaltemprice and HowdenConaye
Simon ReevellDewsburyCon (front bench)aye
Andrew TyrieChichesterCon (front bench)aye
Charles WalkerBroxbourneCon (front bench)aye
Michael CrockartEdinburgh WestLDem (front bench)aye
Tim FarronWestmorland and LonsdaleLDem (front bench)aye
John HemmingBirmingham, YardleyLDem (front bench)aye
Simon HughesBermondsey and Old SouthwarkLDem (front bench)aye
Julian HuppertCambridgeLDem (front bench)aye
Greg MulhollandLeeds North WestLDem (front bench)aye
Sarah TeatherBrent CentralLDemaye

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