Points of Order

Lord Pickles Excerpts

Monday 21st November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Hilary Benn (Leeds Central) (Lab)]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Once again, a major policy announcement from the Department for Communities and Local Government has appeared in the newspapers before a statement has been made to the House. I refer in particular to the report on the Financial Times website on Saturday 18 November on the details of the mortgage indemnity scheme, and the front-page report in The Times of the same date about both the mortgage indemnity scheme and right-to-buy discounts. Mr Speaker, you have been consistently clear that statements about policy should be made to the House before they are made anywhere else. What can now be done, given that this is the third occasion when that has not happened in respect of a policy statement from this Department?

[The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Mr Eric Pickles)]

rose—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. Before I respond to the point of order, the Secretary of State is seeking to catch my eye, and I shall listen to him.

[Mr Pickles]

Further to that point of order, Mr Speaker. I want to give an assurance to you, Mr Speaker, that what appeared in the Financial Times and The Times on Saturday was not authorised by my Department or by any other Department. As my right hon. Friend the Minister for Housing and Local Government has explained, putting together policy statements necessarily involves talking to third parties, and it is a matter of some considerable regret that this information was released before we intended. It was our intention to release everything today.

[Mr Peter Bone (Wellingborough) (Con)]

Further to that point of order, Mr Speaker. We regularly saw leaking under the previous Government, which was wrong, and I thought that things were going to be put right. Leaks may occur, but that does not explain why Ministers appear in the media and are grilled by journalists before they come to this House. I wonder whether that can be looked at.