§ Mr. MacleanTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if(a) he, (b) civil servants in his Department or (c) special advisers in his Department have (i) had sight of drafts of Select Committee reports, in whole or in part, or (ii) been informed of conclusions of Select Committee reports prior to their publication by the Select Committees.[75874]
§ Mr. DewarOn 26 November 1998, theGlasgow Herald newspaper printed what it claimed were extracts from the then unpublished report of an inquiry into "The operation of multi-layer democracy" by the Scottish Affairs Select Committee. This provoked widespread media coverage and comment on that and subsequent days, and I was approached for comment by many journalists.
Inquiries established that the Committee had made its report to the House on 18 November. By 26 November the report was with the printers, and it was published on 2 December 1998. I received protests from members of the Committee about the way in which the contents of the report were being reported. My own initial comments reflected those concerns.
I made it clear to those members of the Committee to whom I spoke that my only concern was to assess the accuracy of the press reports by then appearing in many newspapers. A member of the Committee supplied me with extracts from the report which confirmed that the extensive quotations contained in the media coverage were accurate but not complete. In particular, the Glasgow Herald had not chosen to report the Report's single conclusion, that
we wholeheartedly welcome the Scottish Parliament and Executive and wish them all possible success".Neither I nor anyone acting on my behalf made any attempt nor had any opportunity to influence the Committee's consideration of the report nor the terms of the report itself. Neither did I nor anyone acting on my behalf comment on the report in advance of its publication other than in response to the publication of extracts from a leaked copy by the Glasgow Herald
Neither I nor ministerial colleagues in the Scottish Office nor our parliamentary private secretaries have seen drafts of any other Select Committee reports, nor of parts of reports including their conclusions, before publication. Nor to the best of my knowledge have there been any other occasions on which such material has been given to civil servants or special advisers in my Department. This excludes embargoed copies of reports, including the report published on 2 December 1998, issued under House of Commons Standing Orders.
§ Mr. WilshireTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will publish a of list leaked Select Committee documents that reached(a) him, (b) his Ministers, (c) his officials, (d) his advisers and (e) departmental parliamentary private secretaries during (i) 1997, (ii) 1998 and (iii) 1999.[77929]
§ Mr. DewarI refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave today to the right hon. Member for Penrith and The Border (Mr. Maclean),Official Report, column 324. I know of no other such documents.