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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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