§ Mr. TyrieTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to his answer of 18 June,Official Report, columns 229–30, what guidelines the Monetary Policy Committee has adopted in respect of public comments by its members. [12352]
§ Mrs. LiddellThe minutes of the Monetary Policy Committee meetings record the votes of individual members. Members of the MPC are free to discuss their views in public speeches or comments to the press, but are not permitted to disclose the content of unpublished minutes of the MPC.
The Committee has, moreover, adopted some guidelines on public comments by members which are designed, inter alia, to avoid confusion around the time of MPC meetings. In particular, the Committee has decided that members should avoid giving speeches and contact with the media for a period of eight days from the Friday before the MPC meeting to the Friday after the announcement of the decision on interest rates. In the months when the inflation report is published, this period extends until publication of the report—typically the following Wednesday. The Committee decided that this arrangement should cover public discussion of the UK economy and the decisions and processes of the MPC, but not other issues which are outside the work of the Committee.