§ Mr. Llew SmithTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what consideration he gave to the implication for parliamentary questions in preparing his revised draft code of practice on Government information section XV.
§ Mr. WaldegraveThe code of practice on access to Government information has no implications for the practice of the House concerning parliamentary questions. The draft code published in Cm 2290 included in exemption (xv) a reference to information which could not be sought in a parliamentary question. This has been dropped in the final version of the code, which I announced on 29 MarchOfficial Report, columns 608–9. Many members of the public using the code will not be familiar with parliamentary practice on admissibility of questions as described in "Erskine May". Furthermore, the code covers requests for information which may be addressed directly to non-ministerial departments and public bodies, in respect of which the rules on admissibility would be irrelevant.