Privilege (Hansard, 3 June 1986)

§ Mr. D. N. Campbell-Savours (Workington)

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. I wish to raise a point which concerns your responsibilities as against those of the Liaison Committee.

Today, at midday, I gave a copy of PAC 185 to Mr. Christopher Moncrieff of the Press Association. PAC 185 is entitled "Cost improvement programmes in individual districts" — that is, health districts. The document consists of a reply from Mr. Victor Paige, chairman of the National Health Service management board, to a question I asked him in public session of the Public Accounts Committee while we were taking evidence on value-for-money developments in the National Health Service.

This is a matter for you, Mr. Speaker, because during the course of the Committee proceedings Mr. Paige, for obvious reasons, was not in a position to give a reply on the detail of particular health authority efficiency arrangements. He agreed to provide the answers as supplementary evidence. That evidence was received by the clerk of the PAC. It was not published by the Committee and is therefore unreported evidence.

It is a breach of privilege for a Member of this House to reveal unreported evidence given to a Select Committee. I make it clear that I am opposed to the release of unreported evidence which is either commercially confidential or classified. PAC 185 falls under neither of these headings. It is no more than the answer to a question which would have been given in public session of the PAC had the witness had the information available to him at that time. It is nevertheless, under present rules, a breach of privilege to reveal such a document's contents.

My breach of privilege was in the public interest. I have written to the Chairman of the Privileges Committee drawing attention to it with the request that my breach of privilege be referred to the Committee as a matter of complaint. Can you assure me, Mr. Speaker, that this matter will not be dealt with by the Liaison Committee, which is what we resolved during the course of the three debates we have had on the matter over the past two months, as I wish for a definitive judgment from the Privileges Committee which will enable the House to have access to these unreported documents, which should be in the public domain, because they are neither classified nor commercially in confidence.