HC Deb 24 June 1898 vol 60 cc43-4
MR. HAZELL (Leicester)

I desire to ask the Secretary to the Local Government Board a question of which I have given private notice—namely, whether the draft Report of the Select Committee on Money-lending is not at the present time considered a confidential document, not to be issued to the Press; whether he is aware that it appeared in the Times this morning; whether he can state how a copy of the Report reached that newspaper, and, if not, whether he will cause an inquiry to be made into the matter?

THE SECRETARY TO THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. T. W. RUSSELL,) Tyrone, S.

In reply to my honourable Friend I may say that I saw the Report in the Times this morning with very great surprise and regret. It is manifest that the premature publication of the proceedings of a Select Committee is very embarrassing to the Committee itself, and is misleading to the public. I have not the slightest idea how the Report was conveyed to the Times; but I may point out that it is the original and not the amended draft that is published. The members of the Committee agreed at their meeting yesterday that the Report was not to be communicated to the Press.