The World : Britain to Ease Secrets Law

Britain’s Conservative government, responding to months of controversy and prodding from legislators, said it plans a major liberalization of the nation’s secrecy law. The 1911 Official Secrets Act, hastily passed during a German spy scare, makes it a criminal offense for civil servants, diplomats and defense industry employees to leak any official information, including such items as how many cups of tea are drunk by government officials or what kind of fertilizer is applied to the queen’s rose bushes. Secretary Douglas Hurd labeled some elements of the current law “nonsense” and said the government plans less stringent guidelines.