taken not to go beyond the evidence given by the Minister or official in commenting on any suggestion made by another witness, eg the Chairman of a nationalised industry, at the same hearing, or to disclose information not yet given publicly.
46.
Written memoranda of evidence on which departmental witnesses are examined in public and which are included in the printed copy of the proceedings reported that day to the House, inasmuch as they may have been available to the public attending the session, may at the Department's discretion be issued to other interested parties thereafter. Copies of oral evidence given in public, however, should not be disclosed by Departments until the final published version is available, as the first copies are confidential proofs subject both to correction and to explanation by footnotes. Amendments to the proofs of evidence sent to witnesses by the Clerk cannot normally go beyond minor corrections of grammar and transcription, although the Chairman may be willing to consider suggestions about "sidelining" (see paragraph 51).
In
47. Evidence critical of a Department or its agents may be given in open Session by persons outside the Department on occasions where departmental witnesses are not also present or at sessions held after the departmental evidence has been given. these circumstances Departments should not seek publicly to respond to such criticism outside the ambit of the Committee. Instead, the Chairman of the Committee concerned may be asked to consider inviting the Department to express their view or provide further comments to the Committee as soon as possible.
Disclosure of Confidential Information in General
(see also Sir Douglas Allen's letter of 19 August 1975 to Heads of Departments about the disclosure of classified information to Select Committees, at Annex E).
48. The general aim of Departments should be to assist Committees by disclosing to them whatever official information they may require for the carrying out of their Parliamentary functions, provided that there are not overriding reasons of security or other grounds for withholding such information. It may be, however, that particular information requested by a Committee, "or other information which a Department consider might have a relevant bearing on a Committee's enquiries, should only be made available on the basis that it will not be published and will be treated in confidence. Where this is so, the Department should inform the Clerk to the Committee that the information can be made available only on this basis, explaining the reasons in general terms. Such information should not be made available until the Committee has agreed to treat it accordingly; or, in the case of information with no security classification, at least until the Department are satisfied that the Committee is prepared to agree to a reasonable degree of sidelining (see paragraph 51b). The interpretation of "evidence" at paragraph 23 should be noted in this context. In considering the submission of
"1
18
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.