Unauthorised disclosure of Heads of Report from the Culture, Media and Sport Committee: seventh report of session 2008-09: Vol. 1 Report, together with formal minutes

House of Commons papers 501-I 2008-09

Corporate Author:

Great Britain Parliament House of Commons Committee on Standards and Privileges

Author:

Sir George Young (chairman)

Publisher:

TSO (The Stationery Office)

The Culture, Media and Sport Committee's draft Heads of Report on the BBC's commercial operations were leaked to a journalist and appeared on a newspaper's online website. The Committee regarded this as a serious interference with its work. It is the responsibility of committee members to ensure the security of all committee papers received by post and electronically: this procedure was not followed by the CMSC in this case. Investigations revealed that Tom Smith, a reseacher for Adrian Sanders MP, a member of CMSC, had passed the email containing the draft report to Ms Alice Aitken, researcher for Don Foster MP, Liberal Democrat spokesperson on culture, media and sport. Ms AItken in turn had passed this to Stephen Lotinga, Liberal Democrat adviser on culture media and sport. Mr Lotinga leaked the draft report to the reporter. The Committee recommends that Mr Sanders apologises to the House of Commons for not explaining to his staff the application of Parliamentary privilege to select committee documents and in not ensuring the secure handling of such documents. Mr Lotinga and Mr Smith should have access to Parliament and to its ICT systems withdrawn for periods of 14 and 28 days respectively.

Extent	[2], 24p.	ISBN	9780215530431
Size	N/A	Price	£8.50
Binding	Paperback	Published	21 May 2009
Availability	Colour copy: 3 - 5 days	Delivery	Delivery options and charges

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