Introduction
1. This Report presents the findings of an inquiry
by this Committee into a case involving unauthorised disclosure
of a select committee paper. On 10 March 2009, the Culture, Media
and Sport Committee (CMSC) made a Special Report, that the appearance
in an article on the Guardian online website of direct
quotations from the Committee's draft Heads of Report on the BBC's
commercial operations represented a substantial interference with
its work.[1]
2. Papers prepared for a select committee of the
House of Commons are the property of that Committee and are protected
by Parliamentary privilege. Unauthorised disclosure of such a
paper may constitute a contempt of Parliament. An alleged contempt
may be referred by the House to the Committee on Standards and
Privileges for investigation. In the case of an alleged contempt
involving unauthorised disclosure of a select committee paper,
the matter may be referred by the Committee itself, by making
a Special Report to the House, stating that the unauthorised disclosure
has constituted a substantial interference with its work. A Committee
makes such a Special Report only after its Chairman has first
raised the matter in the Liaison Committee, on which all chairmen
of select committees sit.
3. In order to ensure that the House receives our
conclusions before it rises for the Spring adjournment, we are
making this Report before we are in a position to publish the
evidence in printed form. However, all the evidence is available
on the Parliamentary website[2]
and will be published as hard copy in a second volume as soon
as possible.
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