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Cabinet Office and other similar co-ordinating offices would not
therefore normally give oral evidence to a Committee. (This does
not affect the position where a Committee seek evidence from an
official with special knowledge of the subject of their enquiry in
his professional capacity eg in the scientific or statistical fields.)
Evidence from Other Bodies
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33. Committees are free to call for evidence from whomsoever they
please including non-departmental bodies for which departments have
responsibility, such as nationalised industries and research councils.
If a department becomes aware that a non-departmental body for which
it is responsible has been invited to give evidence, it may wish to
consider whether it would be advisable to discuss the lines of
evidence with the witnesses before the hearing. In many cases the
department may also wish to seek the Committee's agreement to their
being represented at the hearing: whether this is allowed is
entirely a matter for the Committee. Committees may occasionally
call for evidence from commercial firms, particularly those handling
Government contracts. A contractor is normally prohibited from
publishing without written consent the details of Government contracts.
Departments may have to discuss with firms how far the former can
provide a Committee with a general picture of their work, without
going int, the details of specific contracts. Sensitive information
of a commercial nature must not be disclosed (see para 19(ii)). The
normal relationship between departments and non-departmental bodies
or private firms may be sufficient to ensure an awareness on the part
of witnesses from these bodies of the need to deal with the Committee's
inquiries in a manner consonant with the rules about the security of
classified information etc. To the extent that this is thought not
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