Letter to the Clerk of the Committee from
the Parliamentary Relations and Devolution Department, Foreign
and Commonwealth Office, 22 February 2005
Thank you for sending us a copy of the uncorrected
transcript of last month's hearing about disciplinary issues in
the FCO. We understand that it is the Committee's preference to
operate in public wherever possible and publish transcripts of
hearings. We were grateful that the Committee agreed that we hold
the session in private in recognition of the sensitivities involved.
As the transcript indicates, the exchanges were
almost exclusively about individual officers. Given the duty of
care that Sir Michael Jay and his colleagues have to serving and
former members of staff, they were unable to go into detail about
the cases being discussed. It is also clear that they were in
part discussing allegations that have not been fully investigated
and where the facts have still not been established. Some of the
allegations the Committee seems to have heard do not correspond
with our understanding of the case. We hope that the Committee
will agree that in these circumstances to redact the transcript
with the aim of publication would not be advisable. So much material
relating to individual cases would have to be removed that redaction
would produce a transcript that has little meaning.
There are several important principles which
arise from this case and Sir Michael is keen that the Committee
is provided with as much additional information as we can provide.
This will include a statement of principles, as well as specific
answers to queries that arose. We will provide this as soon as
we can.
Chris Stanton
Parliamentary Relations and Devolution Team
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
22 February 2005
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