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would perhaps have been avoided. It is therefore prudent to record some caveat ("I shall have to touch on sensitive
matters here" etc) which will facilitate sidelining
afterwards.
11. The sidelining procedure has proved an adequate, if not total, safeguard in the past. Committees have the power to decide whether to accept suggestions that all or any part of a formal evidence session should be sidelined. In practice,
Committees have been very reasonable in meeting such requests, and we have no reason to suppose that this attitude will change as long as the requests themselves remain reasonable. Asterisks will indicate where such
deletions have been made.
Informal Contacts
12. The care taken to ensure a sufficiently authoritative presence at formal evidence sessions (at home a Minister or Under-Secretary) underlines the need for great discretion on the part of all officers abroad if approached by a Committee Member in informal circumstances particularly at social functions. It is therefore important that all members of a Mission's staff likely to come into substantive contact with members of a visiting Select Committee are given appropriate
guidance.
13. It is worth noting that while, after giving formal evidence, witnesses may request sidelining, they have no such right in other circumstances. Classified or otherwise
sensitive information or comment should therefore be avoided
unless it is possible and appropriate to make clear to the Committee or individual Members, before witnesses, that what
is about to be said is in confidence and not for
publication.
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/Conclusion
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