13. LETTER
TO
RT
HON
JACQUI
SMITH
MP FROM
THE
COMMISSIONER,
30 MARCH
2009
Thank you very much for your letter of 26 March responding
to mine of 2 March about a number of matters in relation to this
complaint.
It was very helpful to have the diary information
by financial year, as you had offered, and to have your additional
commentary on it. Thank you too for your interpretation of the
provision in Section 3.1.1 of the Green Book and the answer to
the frequently asked question given in the pre-amble to Section
3.
I was grateful for the careful thought you, and senior
government officials, have given to my request that I should ask
the police for access to their logs to confirm your overnight
stays. I am mindful both of your own security and that of others
who may require police protection. I am grateful too that you
have secured agreement to me having access to your ministerial
diaries and for your own suggestion that I should have access
to these and to your other diaries to go through them with you.
I see that both your Permanent Secretary and the senior Cabinet
Office official suggest that access to police records should only
be used as a last resort.
I think it would be helpful, therefore, if I took
up your kind offer to go through your Ministerial and other diaries.
I imagine that this could take a little time and I appreciate
that given your ministerial and parliamentary duties, you must
have very little of that. I would be very happy, therefore, to
discuss the logistics of this with anyone you designate with the
aim of ensuring that this work can be carried out as quickly and
as securely as possible.
If you agree, it might be quickest if you gave me
a telephone call so that we can set in train the necessary arrangements.
When I have seen your diaries, I will be better able to decide
whether it is necessary for me to ask for access to the police
records.
I am most grateful to you and to senior officials
for your and their assistance on this matter.
30 March 2009
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