Examination of Witnesses (Questions 1-19)
MR TOM
SMITH
24 MARCH 2009
Q1 Chairman: Good morning, Mr Smith.
I think you know why this Committee is carrying out its inquiry:
there was a leak by the DCMS Select Committee. The Liaison Committee
resolved that this constituted a serious interference with the
work of the Select Committee and they referred it to this Committee
to make some enquiries. Perhaps I can start off. This is a question
we put to witnesses in other inquiries: would you be content for
this Committee to have access to your parliamentary e-mail account,
to look at activity in February of this year?
Mr Smith: Yes.
Q2 Chairman: Thank you very much.
Then why did you ask the CMS Committee staff to send you a copy
of the draft Report on the BBC Commercial Operations?
Mr Smith: There was an article
in the Guardian—I think it is on 14 February—saying
that the Report was due to be released before the end of the month.
We were not originally aware of that and I asked Adrian about
it. He said he had not seen any draft Report, and I do not think
he was at the Committee session where they were discussing the
draft Heads of Report, so he said to ask the Committee Clerks
if anything had been done, so I e-mailed.
Q3 Chairman: It was on his instructions
that you approached the Committee Clerk for a copy?
Mr Smith: Yes. He just said, "E-mail
the Committee Clerks". He did not say, "Ask for a draft"
specifically.
Q4 Chairman: Would he not have had
a copy of the draft Report as a member of the Committee?
Mr Smith: Yes, but he was not
aware of having received that. He was at home at the time.
Q5 Chairman: This would have been
the papers for the meeting at the end of January which would have
been sent to him in hard copy?
Mr Smith: Yes.
Q6 Chairman: Are you saying he never
got those?
Mr Smith: He did get those, but
we were thinking that, as a result of this Guardian article,
maybe we had missed a further paper going round which may have
been lost in the internal post, or something like that, because
they had recently put over our papers to internal post delivery
rather than by hand.
Q7 Mr Llwyd: Good morning, Mr Smith.
Could you tell the Committee, to whom did you forward the e-mail
that you received from the CMS Committee Assistant on 23 February;
and that, of course, had the Heads of Report attached to it?
Mr Smith: I did not forward it
to anyone at the time; it was only when the Committee Clerk approached
Adrian saying there had been a leak Adrian asked me to forward
the e-mail to him, and that is the only person I forwarded it
to.
Q8 Mr Llwyd: Could you tell us, who
is the Liberal Democrat spokesman on DCMS?
Mr Smith: Don Foster.
Q9 Mr Llwyd: Mr Foster undoubtedly
would be interested in this Report?
Mr Smith: I would have thought
so, yes.
Q10 Mr Llwyd: Did you or anybody
in your office pass this on to him or anybody in his office?
Mr Smith: No.
Q11 Mr Llwyd: Is that definitely,
no?
Mr Smith: I am definitely sure.
I did not even open the Heads of Report when it was e-mailed to
me.
Q12 Mr Llwyd: Right, but did anybody
else in your office have access to that Report?
Mr Smith: Not that e-mail that
I had, and it was never in paper form. Obviously the original
Heads of Report were in paper form; but I am almost certainly
sure that only I and Adrian had access to that, as well as obviously
the rest of the Committee.
Q13 Mr Llwyd: Do you work alone in
your office or do you have anybody else?
Mr Smith: I have a separate office
from Adrian. I do have three interns but they are not aware of
what I am doing on the select committee work, and they do not
usually work on it at all.
Q14 Mr Llwyd: Are you saying you
did not pass it on to Mr Foster or his staff?
Mr Smith: No, I did not even mention
that I had had a new e-mail with Heads of Report to anyone, as
the Committee Clerk said that Adrian had already received this
in the e-mail and that there were no changes.
Q15 Mr Barron: Do you know Mark Sweney,
the Guardian correspondent?
Mr Smith: No.
Q16 Mr Barron: Have you ever been
in contact with him at all on any matters in relation to the CMS
inquiry?
Mr Smith: No, I have never had
any contact with him.
Q17 Mr Barron: You never spoke to
him at all?
Mr Smith: No. I was not aware
of his existence.
Q18 Mr Barron: Do you have any knowledge
if anybody else in the office has ever spoken to him? I do not
mean Adrian, but any of these internees?
Mr Smith: No, none of the interns;
and I do not even think Adrian has ever spoken to him.
Q19 Mr Soames: Mr Smith, are you
saying to the Committee that the Report was already in paper form
in circulation before you sent this e-mail?
Mr Smith: The Heads of Report
were originally in paper form and had been circulated to the Committee
and to a number of other people on the Committee's distribution
list—I do not know who they are. When I e-mailed the Clerks
they e-mailed back with the attachment saying, "This is the
Heads of Report which have already been circulated", so I
did not do anything further with it.
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