HC 444

Written evidence submitted by Lord Oxburgh (UEA Reviews 04)

Letter from the Clerk of the Committee to Lord Oxburgh, 21 September 2010

The Committee has asked me to thank you for giving oral evidence on 8 September, which it found very useful.

Members have two follow-up questions and I should be grateful if you could let me have written replies. Your responses may be published by the Committee. The questions follow from the questions and answers at Qq 32 and 33 in the transcript and are as follows.

· Can you explain where the list of eleven papers came from?

· Did the list arrive with the panel before the Royal Society had been consulted?

Thank you for your assistance.

Email from Lord Oxburgh to the Clerk of the Committee, 30 September 2010

Thank you for your message. The two questions:

1.The list of papers came to us from the University as a representative sample of the work of CRU that would offer us a way into the subject. We had no direct or detailed knowledge of the origin of the list but understood that the RS was involved in its production. We made no special inquiries on this matter and attached no particular significance to the origin of the list at the time, nor did we later. It in no way restricted our examination of other publications or material.

2. I think that this is very unlikely but we have no way of telling.

September 2010