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Sir Gus surprised at MP's arrest

The head of the civil service has said he was surprised when police
arrested senior Tory Damian Green as part of a Home Office leaks
investigation.

Sir Gus O'Donnell told MPs he was solely concerned about stopping the
leaks, not where the probe would go.

He insisted police were called because of national security fears, not
because leaks were politically embarrassing.

He said ex-shadow home secretary David Davis had said half the material
they received was too sensitive to publish.

Defending the decision to ask the police to investigate, Cabinet
Secretary Sir Gus told the public administration committee: "We were
worried that certain information was getting out which was potentially
very damaging to national security.

"And to have access to some of the other things that had come out in the
newspapers the kind of person that had access to that might well also
have access to quite secret stuff."

'Worrying' leaks

He said the issue had been "brought home" to him by an interview Mr
Davis did with the BBC on 28 November - the day after Mr Green was
arrested - in which he said much material the Tories received was not
published because it was too sensitive.

Sir Gus also pointed to a previous case in which a civil servant working
in a police counter-terrorism unit had been jailed for leaking an
intelligence report to a Sunday newspaper.

And there were "worrying" leaks about a police anti-terrorism operation,
Operation Gamble, the root of which had not been discovered.

Police were only asked to get involved if leaks were "serious,
persistent" and where the person concerned may have access to material
affecting national security.

Conservative MP Charles Walker suggested he was happy to allow leaks
that were favourable to the government, but took a stronger line against
those that were not.

"I completely refute that," Sir Gus told the Commons Public
Administration.

"I'm very upset by all leaks. It is important that the civil service is
politically impartial and it's important we don't leak anything be it
embarrassing, not embarrassing or national security."

Political row

Leaks "undermine that confidence of ministers in the civil service" and
were "corrosive and reduce the quality of debate inside government," he
said.

Mr Walker replied: "I would strongly suggest, even advise... that you
have every single special adviser in the Treasury investigated by the
police because some of them have clearly been leaking information that
is helpful to the government."

The hearing comes weeks after Mr Green was arrested by police, who had
been asked by the Cabinet Office to investigate leaks from the Home
Office.

A civil servant, Christopher Galley, had been arrested but neither he
nor Mr Green have been charged.

The arrest of an MP and police search of his Commons office prompted a
huge political row, but Sir Gus said the decision to arrest Mr Green was
a matter for the police.

Asked if he was surprised about it, he replied: "I was surprised, to be
honest, yes."

"Our interest is in stopping the source of the leaks... precisely where
they [the police] go is neither here not there."

The committee's Labour chairman Tony Wright asked him why Tory leader
David Cameron and the Conservative mayor of London Boris Johnson had
been told about the arrest of Mr Green in advance, while the prime
minister and home secretary were only told afterwards.

Sir Gus said he told the prime minister as soon as he knew, which was
after the arrest took place. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith was in Brussels
at the time and was informed as soon as was possible.

"This is something for the police to do ... it is their decision as to
how they do their investigation. "

He stressed that he could not order the police to investigate leaks in
the civil service, he could only ask them to consider it.

He said it was clear in a statement from Mr Galley's lawyer that he was
"responsible for some leaks" but said inquiries were continuing. "It may
be that there are other people who are responsible for others, we just
don't know."

Asked about Mr Galley's history as a Conservative activist and whether
that should have raised concerns during an internal leaks inquiry, he
said previous political activity was no bar to working in the civil
service.

The job attracted people with an interest in politics but that was no
reason to think they would ignore the civil service code, he said.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news. bbc.co.uk/ go/pr/fr/ -/1/hi/uk_ politics/ 7777253.stm

Published: 2008/12/11 12:53:41 GMT