Police Searches on the Parliamentary Estate - Committee on the Issue of Privilege Contents


Letter to the Chairman ot the Committee from the Clerk of the House

  I am writing to you to comment on one specific matter in my evidence to the Committee concerning the circumstances in which I learned of the arrest of Mr Green on the afternoon of 27 November 2008 referred to, in passing, in the recent evidence of the Serjeant-at-Arms.

  The Committee will know from the evidence it has before it, that I had not been consulted either by the then Speaker or the Serjeant that day, nor had I had any contact with the police throughout the period of the events being examined. I had no knowledge of the events of that morning. On that afternoon, while working on my computer screen, the television was on in my office as I was following the news. I usually do so on the Sky News channel. My secretary recollects that on learning of that particular matter, I rushed out of my office into the adjoining room and asked her to find the Serjeant at once.

  To the best of my knowledge and belief, I saw the matter on Sky News but I accept that is possible I saw it on another channel. At all events, I confirm the material point of my evidence that before that time I had no knowledge of the events of the morning, or of Mr Green's arrest, and on learning about it summoned the Serjeant-at-Arms at once.

Malcolm Jack

Clerk of the House & Chief Executive

11 December 2009





 
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