52 annual report 2012 However, this did not happen. On the morning of 29 September 2011, Sass Larsen announced that he was not available for a ministerial post as the au­ thorities would not grant security clearance. He was unable to say much more, but the media closely linked the case with his alleged association with people in the biker gang environment. In November 2011, Henrik Sass Larsen lodged a complaint with the Ombudsman, who selected three issues for investigation. They were: –– an order to remain silent which the authorities had imposed on Sass Larsen in relation to a much-discussed PET memorandum –– refusal of Sass Larsen’s subsequent request for access to this memorandum –– the fact that PET had not called Sass Larsen for a ‘preventive interview’. I will not consider the last two issues, but instead provide an overview of the first and undoubtedly most controversial part of the case, i.e. the issues in relation to the order to remain silent imposed on Henrik Sass Larsen in relation to the PET memorandum. I will also reflect on the Ombudsman’s role in the case. The order to remain silent imposed on Sass Larsen On 28 September 2011 – i.e. after the general election, but before a new government was formed – Henrik Sass Larsen participated in two meetings at the Prime Minister’s Office. In addition to Sass Larsen, the first meeting was attended by the Permanent Secretaries of the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Justice and the second by the head of PET and later Minister of Finance Bjarne Corydon. During the first meeting, Henrik Sass Larsen was shown a memorandum prepared by PET, which among other things concerned Sass Larsen’s contact with people in the biker gang environment. It was the information in this memorandum which formed the basis for Sass Larsen’s subsequent public announcement that he was not available as a ministerial candidate because he could not get the necessary security clearance. At the meeting, a so-called order to remain silent, i.e. an order not to make the memorandum public, was also imposed on Henrik Sass Larsen. Pursuant to