Letter from Ms Alice Aitken, office of
Mr Don Foster MP to the Clerk of the Committee on Standards and
Privileges, 8 May 2009
You recently wrote to me regarding the Committee
on Standards and Privileges' inquiry into the leaking of an internal,
privileged document of the Select Committee on Culture, Media
and Sport.
You asked me to respond to three questions.
My responses are as follows:
The Committee wishes to know whether you had sight
of the CMS Committee's Heads of Report on the BBC's commercial
operations at any time before 25 February
I received a copy of the CMS Committee's Heads
of Report on the BBC's commercial operations from Adrian Sanders'
researcher, Tom Smith, on 23 January 2009. (I have enclosed a
copy of the email I received)[1]
I forwarded this email to Stephen Lotinga who
is the advisor to the Liberal Democrats on CMS issues.
Whether you discussed the content of the CMS Committee's
Heads of Report on the BBC's commercial operations with any person
before 25 February
I did not discuss the content of the CMS Committee's
Heads of Report on the BBC's commercial operations with any person
before 25 February.
Whether you are able to explain how the leaks
to the Guardian which resulted in the reports of 14 and 25 February
came about.
I am unable to explain how the leaks to the
Guardian came about.
You also asked me to send you over any information
which may be considered relevant to the inquiry. I have enclosed
a copy of an email exchange that took place between myself and
Tom Smith on 16 February regarding the likely publication date
of the report. I saw the Guardian report of 14 February
which suggested that the report would be published at the end
of the month and emailed Tom to seek clarification over the date.
If you require any further information please
do not hesitate to contact me.
1 See attachment to letter from Mr Lotinga, above. Back
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