CONFIDENTIAL
2.
iii)
The Clerk will then send two copies to the witness: One for his retention; on the other he should side line any passage containing information which, in his opinion, it would be undesirable on grounds of security to print.
It should be noted that Select Committees may sometimes challenge a request for side-lining, and officials must always be sure that they can justify such a request if they make one.
As you know, special arrangements exist in the Committee Office of the House of Commons for handling of classified material. Documents are filed in a combination container, they cannot be photocopied and Members are not allowed to remove them from the Committee Office. As the Memorandum makes clear (see paragraph (i) above) the constitutional position is that all evidence given to a Select Committee, whether classified or not becomes the property of that Committee and can be published at their discretion. But it should be noted that there has not yet been an example of a Committee either publishing or leaking classified information (as distinct from unclassified but politically embarrassing). As Mr Bacon commented in his minute to PS/PUS dated 4 May 1988, Committees are acutely aware of the fact that, whatever the constitutional position, Government Departments would simply refuse to provide classified information in future if there were doubts about it being adequately protected. Nevertheless Ministers should be made fully aware that MPs are not vetted and there is no real control over the private oral use to which they can put the information they receive as Members of Select Committees.
3. Once we receive details of the Memoranda required for this Inquiry from the Clerk, I will circulate these to all concerned together with copies of the Memorandum of Guidance for Officials appearing before Select Committees. Mr Paul already has copies.
९५
Sy Rasey
Ba
S F Bailey (Miss)
CONFIDENTIAL
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.