1 Background
1. On 27 November 2008 news broke that a senior
Member of Parliament and Opposition spokesman, Mr Damian Green,
had been arrested by police and his home and offices searched
in connection with an investigation into the leak and publication
of a number of government documents. Press reports indicated that
Mr Green was believed to have received government documents from
a Home Office official, Mr Christopher Galley, who had been arrested
eight days earlier and who had subsequently admitted to having
leaked some documents. Mr Green was arrested under the common
law offences of "conspiring to commit misconduct in public
office and aiding or abetting, counselling or procuring misconduct
in public office".
2. This series of events, and particularly the
fact that Mr Green's office at the House of Commons was searched
without the police producing a warrant, caused considerable disquiet
and provoked a lot of media comment. The Speaker of the House
of Commons, Rt Hon Michael Martin MP, made a Statement about the
search of Mr Green's office in Parliament on Wednesday 3 December,
the first day on which the House sat after Mr Green's arrest.
During this Statement, the Speaker announced his decision to establish
a committee of seven Members to consider the matter of the seizure
of Mr Green's papers and, to report its findings to the House
"as soon as possible".[1]
The Government accordingly brought forward a motion to establish
the Speaker's Committee on the Search of Offices on the Parliamentary
Estate. The motion was debated on 8 December and agreed on division.
The Committee's remit was to "review the internal processes
of the House administration for granting permission for such action
[as police searches of Members' offices and seizure of their papers],
and to make recommendations for the future".[2]
Its membership was to reflect the party composition of the House,
and would therefore have a majority of members from the Labour
Party. However, the leaders of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat
Parties subsequently made it clear that their members would not
serve on the committee. The result is that the Speaker's Committee
has not met, nor, apparently, is it likely to meet.
3. The narrow remit of the Speaker's Committee
(the internal processes of the House administration) meant that
it would not anyway have examined in detail either the starting
point of the police inquiries—a request from the Cabinet
Office that the Metropolitan Police should investigate a series
of leaks of government information from the Home Office—or
the wider conduct of the investigation by the police. We considered
that both issues warranted examination, and we were concerned
that, given the impasse over the Speaker's Committee and the fact
that the House had not referred the matter to its Committee on
Standards and Privileges,[3]
no Committee of the House was examining the issues raised by the
case. We therefore decided to launch our own short inquiry into
"the way in which the Home Office reacted to the suspected
leaks of information and the procedures followed by the Metropolitan
Police when they were asked to investigate further".[4]
4. At the time of writing, both Mr Green and
Mr Galley are still on police bail, waiting to see whether they
will be charged and, if so, with what offence. Bail was extended
until 20 April because the police were still trying to determine
what, if any, of the material seized from Mr Green was subject
to Parliamentary privilege. Our inquiries have therefore been
constrained by our desire not to interfere with the police investigation
or any subsequent court case.
5. We took oral evidence from the Home Secretary,
Rt Hon Jacqui Smith MP, and the Permanent Secretary of the Home
Office, Sir David Normington; from the Chairman of the Metropolitan
Police Authority, Mr Boris Johnson; and from the Assistant Commissioner
in charge of the Metropolitan Police's investigation, Mr Robert
Quick. We sought subsequent written evidence from all four witnesses,
and we also wrote to a number of other people connected with the
investigation to ask them specific questions. The letters we sent
and the replies received are published with this Report. We would
like to thank all those who gave full and direct answers to our
questions.
1 HC Deb, 3 December 2009, col 1-3. The House was prorogued
on 27 November and met to hear the Queen's Speech on 3 December. Back
2
House of Commons Votes and Proceedings, 8 December 2008 Back
3
Under SO No 149 (1) (a) Back
4
Home Affairs Committee Press Release, 10 December 2008 Back
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