§ Mr. JenkinTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he or his ministers have received any advance copy or draft or briefing on the contents of any select committee report before its due publication date and time; and if he will make a statement. [75766]
§ Mr. MacleanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if(a) he, (b) civil servants in his Department or (c) special advisers in his Department have (i) had sight of drafts of select committee reports, in whole or in part, or (ii) been informed of conclusions of select committee reports prior to their publication by the select committees. [75868]
§ Dr. Reid[holding answer 9 March 1999]: I refer the right hon. and hon. Members to the answer given by the Prime Minister to the hon. Member for Spelthorne (Mr. Wilshire) on 1 March 1999, Official Report, column 531. There have been no instances of members of Select Committees giving me, or my ministerial colleagues, drafts of Select Committee reports, or of parts of reports including their conclusions, before publication. Nor, to the best of my knowledge, have there been any occasions on which members of Select Committees have given such material to civil servants or special advisers in my Department. This excludes embargoed copies of reports issued under House of Commons Standing Orders.