§ Mr. SpeakerYesterday the hon. Member for Brigg and Scunthorpe (Mr. Ellis) raised a complaint of privilege in regard to an article in the Observer which, in his opinion, amounted to disclosure of parts of a report of the Select Committee on Nationalised Industries prior to the official publication of the report. In accordance with recent practice I undertook to consider the matter and to give my ruling today.
As the hon. Member acknowledged, the report had already been technically presented to the House—in fact, on 15th December last. In these circumstances, publication of a report, or part of it, is not a contempt of the House. The situation is described in "Erskine May", page 663, which also states the practice that, when a report has been presented, Members of the House ought to be the first to be informed of its contents.
Although, therefore, I am unable to rule that the hon. Member has raised a matter of privilege which should be given priority over the Orders of the Day, I strongly deprecate the inconvenience caused and the discourtesy shown to the House by any person, whether a Member of this House or not, who publishes any part of a Select Committee's report before it is officially printed and available to hon. Members. That clearly happened in this case.
This situation is made possible as a result of procedures agreed to by the House which I cannot alter. I gladly accept the hon. Member's suggestion that I should draw the attention of the appropriate authorities to the need to consider whether some changes or modifications should be made in those procedures.
§ Mr. John EllisThank you, Mr. Speaker.