§ MR. FIELD (Dublin, St. Patrick)To ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether the Comptroller and Auditor-General, the Assistant Comptroller, or any of their subordinate chiefs, have the right to question any of their subordinates regarding private communications on the administration of the Exchequer and Audit Department that may have passed between any of such subordinates and a Member of Parliament; whether the right exists to question any of such subordinates regarding his acquaintance ship with any Member of Parliament, and, if so, seeing that the whole staff of the Exchequer and Audit Department is composed of public servants paid out of public funds, will he explain under what authority or regulation such rights are claimed.
(Answered by Mr. Runicman.) In view of cases which have recently occurred in which information derived from official sources has been communicated without authority to the public Press and other persons, the Comptroller and Auditor-General has drawn the attention of his staff to the general rule in force throughout the Civil Service that such action will be considered a grave breach of duty, rendering the offender in extreme cases liable to dismissal.