Sir Fred Goodwin's Superinjuction Lifted

A superinjunction which granted anonymity to former RBS boss Sir Fred Goodwin - to prevent publication of details of a "sexual relationship" - has been lifted.

Sir Fred did not oppose the move by the High Court, which came after the injunction was referred to in the House of Lords.

Earlier, Lord Stoneham raised a question on behalf of Lord Oakeshott, and asked the Government "what steps they will take to ensure that the public interest is taken into account in the granting of superinjuctions?"

In a supplementary question he said: "Would he accept that every taxpayer has a direct public interest in the events leading up to the collapse of the Royal Bank of Scotland?

"So how can it be right for a superinjunction to hide the alleged relationship between Sir Fred Goodwin and a senior colleague?

"If true, it would be a serious failure of corporate governance and not even the FSA would be allowed to know about it."

Justice minister Lord McNally replied: "I do not think it is proper for me, from this dispatch box, to comment on individual cases, some of which are before the courts."

Lord Oakeshott told Sky News: "What could be of greater public interest than the worst corporate crash in British history which cost the taxpayers billions?"

MPs and peers are exempt from prosecution when they speak in the House of Commons and House of Lords.

Sky's deputy political editor Joey Jones said: "This injunction was, as we now know, put in place to try to protect details of a relationship Sir Fred Goodwin is alleged to have had with a colleague at RBS.

"One can only understand that relationship must have been in the run-up to the collapse of RBS.

"Originally it was Lib Dem MP John Hemming who revealed the existence of the superinjuction, which we would not have been able to talk about - and the fact it even prohibited us from saying he was a banker."

In a statement, Mr Hemming described the decision as a "small victory for free speech".

"It is, however, a victory", he said.

"I think the judiciary recognise which way the wind is blowing. However, what they really need to do is to change tack."

Legal expert Joshua Rozenberg warned that if changes are not made to the system, this could happen again.

"It does show that when somebody is in the public eye and they are trying to hide something which appears to a parliamentarian something the public should know about, there is a risk that somebody will dig a little hole in the injunction," he told Sky News.

After the comments in the House of Lords, News Group Newspapers went to court to ask for the order, which was made in the High Court in March, to be discharged.

Mr Justice Tugendhat, the judge who varied the injunction, said that before that application, Sir Fred's lawyer had already said he did not want to "persuade the court to continue the anonymity" he had been granted.

The judge said a new order would be drawn up permitting the identification of Sir Fred, but would not allow details of the relationship to be published, or the name of the woman said to be involved.

The former banker's lawyer said he accepted the order should be varied after the comments in the House of Lords.

He told the judge there was no suggestion at any stage that Sir Fred had done "anything improper in his conduct of the business of the Royal Bank of Scotland".

Sir Fred was the chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland from 2000 until October 2008.

He stood down in January 2009, just a month before the bank announced its total losses for 2008 were £24.1bn - the largest annual loss in UK corporate history.