HC Deb 23 June 1972 vol 839 cc889-91
Mr. Speaker

Yesterday the right hon. Member for Stafford and Stone (Mr. Hugh Fraser) drew attention to an article in yesterday's Daily Mail which purported to state the findings of the Select Committee of Privileges made to the House on Tuesday evening, 20th June.

The House knows that any publication of a draft report before the report has been agreed to by a Committee and presented to the House is treated as a breach of privilege. On the other hand, when the report, as in this case, has been presented to the House, although not yet available to hon. Members in a printed form, it is not an offence against the law of privilege to publish the findings of a Select Committee. It is, however, very discourteous to the House when this is done, as my predecessors have frequently said. All I can do on this occasion is to express my displeasure but to state, as my predecessors have ruled, that no question of privilege is involved.

Hon. Members will find the rules on page 646 of the current edition of Erskine May.

Mr. Hugh Fraser

I thank you for your ruling Mr. Speaker. Considering that you were treated discourteously personally, you have shown an extremely merciful attitude.

Surely it is not the Press that is to blame in these matters, but Members of the House for breaches of confidence. I should like my right hon. Friend the Lord President of the Council to look at the whole question of the Committee of Privileges so as to see that these breaches do not recur. It is intolerable that there should be such breaches of confidence by hon. Members.

Mr. Harold Wilson

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. Is the effect of your ruling, Mr. Speaker, that if there is a Motion on the Order Paper to say that a Select Committee has reported and between that date and publication a statement appears correctly or incorrectly purporting to give the findings of that Select Committee, no action may be taken? Surely, this is just as bad as a leak from the Committee, if there is a leak from the Committee, or a leak about the Committee's proceedings, or whatever it may be, while the Committee is sitting. Is there any difference merely because the report is being printed which makes it less serious than if a leak occurs?

Mr. Speaker

I think that there is great substance in what the right hon. Gentleman has said, but I am bound by the rulings of my predecessors. Even if the report had been made in dummy and reported in the Votes and Proceedings, that would mean that a report had been made to the House and publication would not be a breach of privilege or contempt. But certainly I should be most willing to see that practice altered by the House in some way, because it seems a monstrous discourtesy to the House that this should happen.

Mr. Harold Wilson

Further to that point of order, Mr. Speaker. Is the only thing that we can do to have the Leader of the House take it to the Select Committee on Procedure? It seems an extraordinary state of affairs. It must mean that if a Bill possibly concerning large sums of money were presented in dummy there would be no breach of privilege and nothing contrary to the rules of the House if the contents were leaked before the House saw the Bill.

Mr. R. Carr

Further to that point of order. As is the rest of the House, I am grateful to you, Mr. Speaker, for your ruling, not only in my capacity as Leader of the House, but as Chairman of the Committee of Privileges. I am extremely disturbed by what has happened and I should like the opportunity to look into it, for it is extremely difficult for Committees of this kind to proceed with the confidence they need if this sort of thing may happen.