Select Committee Reports

HC Deb 09 March 1999 vol 327 cc205-6W

Mr. Duncan

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he or his Ministers have received any advance copy, draft or briefing upon the contents of any report of the Health Committee prior to its due publication date and time; and if he will make a statement. [75774]

Mr. Dobson

I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply given by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister to the hon. Member for Spelthorne (Mr. Wilshire) on 1 March 1999,Official Report, column 531. There have been no instances of members of Select Committees giving me, or my ministerial colleagues, drafts of Select Committee reports, or of parts of reports including their conclusions, before publication. Nor to the best of my knowledge have there been any occasions on which members of Select Committees have given such material to civil servants or special advisers in my Department. This excludes embargoed copies of reports issued under House of Commons Standing Order 116.