Parliamentary Written Answer (Correction)

Oliver Heald Excerpts

Monday 2nd September 2013 Written Statements

[The Solicitor-General (Oliver Heald)]

I regret to inform the House that a written answer I gave on 10 January 2013, Official Report, column 415-16W, to the hon. Member for Angus (Mr Weir) was incorrect. The hon. Member asked the Attorney-General how many civil service posts have been made redundant by the Law Officers’ Departments in each year since 1999; and what has been the cost of redundancies in each such year.

The data concerning the Crown Prosecution Service were incorrect and reported that no posts had been made redundant. This was due to a database recording error which has now been identified and corrected. In fact the Crown Prosecution Service did make a small number of senior posts redundant and an additional table showing the missing data is included in the revised answer below. All other information provided in the original response was correct. The revised answer is as follows.

During the period 1999 to 2012 there were five redundancies declared and made in Attorney-General’s Office, Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate, and the Treasury Solicitor’s Department (TSol), at a total cost of £185,788.90. No breakdown by year is given so as to preserve confidentiality.

In addition the Government Property Lawyers office in Taunton was closed in 1999 and a number of people would have been transferred elsewhere, accepted voluntary exits or made redundant. TSol does not hold information on numbers of staff declared and subsequently made redundant or the costs of such an exercise.

The following table shows the number and cost of paid early exits from the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in each year since April 2005, including redundancy and early retirements. Data prior to that date are no longer held and details about cost are not held prior to 2008. The cost of exits is not given where the number of exits is fewer than five, in order to protect the personal data of the individuals concerned.

Under the old Civil Service Compensation Scheme, which was replaced in 2011, most individuals under 50 received what were known as early severance terms, while those over 50 took early retirement.

Child Sexual Abuse

Oliver Heald Excerpts

Tuesday 11th June 2013 Written Statements

[The Solicitor-General (Oliver Heald)]

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has today launched a public consultation on his new interim guidelines for prosecuting cases involving child sexual abuse.

The guidelines set out the new approach that prosecutors should take when reviewing cases of child sexual abuse and how they should look at the overall credibility of the allegation of abuse. The guidelines are intended to cover the range of child sexual abuse, including the abuse usually characterised as “child sexual exploitation”.

The guidelines have been issued on an interim basis as they are the subject of a public consultation exercise that will last for three months. The DPP will publish his final guidelines later this year once he has considered the responses to the consultation.

Copies of the interim guidelines have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

The DPP’s interim guidelines are being published at the same time as new guidance for the police is being issued by the College of Policing, and which is also the subject of public consultation.

Communications: Social Media

Oliver Heald Excerpts

Tuesday 26th February 2013 Westminster Hall

[The Solicitor-General (Oliver Heald)]

It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Dobbin. I congratulate the hon. Member for Liverpool, Walton (Steve Rotheram) on securing the debate. It is a topic about which he feels strongly and on which he has led and campaigned for some time. I agree that the sort of behaviour that he has described in this debate and on earlier occasions is completely unacceptable and wrong and must be tackled.

My hon. Friend the Member for Gillingham and Rainham (Rehman Chishti) and the hon. Gentleman made the point that a multi-agency set of different approaches are needed if the issue is to be tackled effectively. My hon. Friend mentioned defamation, and the hon. Gentleman will be aware of some of the constructive work being done with media sites to ensure that comments are taken down quickly and effective action is taken, but much more can be done.

I start by addressing the hon. Gentleman’s four questions. The interim guidelines distinguish a range of different kinds of behaviour in the social media field. I am sure he would agree that a prosecutor would tackle a case where there is a credible threat of violence, for instance, differently from another case. Similarly, if an individual is being targeted and harassed persistently, that is another kind of case. There are offences that can be used to prosecute particular kinds of conduct.

There are cases involving activities such as credible threats or harassment, therefore, and then all the other cases, which can vary widely in what they involve. They do not necessarily have the aggravating factors that would lead a prosecutor to charge someone with a serious indictable offence such as threats to kill, or harassment, but it does not follow that the cases in that other category, which are so different from each other, will not be prosecuted. In fact, the guidance is designed to cover the whole field.

Secondly, the wording of paragraph 12 is subject to public consultation. I will ensure that what the hon. Gentleman said today is conveyed to the Crown Prosecution Service, so that his comments are not only on the record in this place but part of the consultation. The approach taken in the interim guidelines is to distinguish offending of different gravity. A case of trolling, which, broadly speaking, is social media jargon for posting provocative or disruptive messages, can fall into any one of the categories of offending set out in the interim guidelines, depending on the facts.

Thirdly, I thank the hon. Gentleman for drawing attention to work in the academic sphere to develop technology and expertise that might assist the police in the investigation of such offences. The consultation extends to those with an interest in such matters. The police, certainly, are interested in the techniques. Finally, there is the question of whether statutory time limits need to be extended. That needs to be considered in the context of the consultation. The issue is important.

More generally, I provide assurance that the CPS can and does prosecute cases successfully. The CPS reports an increase over recent months in the number of social media cases. Since the publication of the interim guidance on 19 December, the principal legal adviser to the Director of Public Prosecutions agreed that 15 cases should be proceeded with by prosecution. The interim guidelines issued by the DPP have been developed to assist prosecutors. They were also developed in conjunction with the Association of Chief Police Officers. The idea is that points of the sort that the hon. Gentleman made about the academic evidence can be taken into account in the consultation. It is important to remember that the police investigate offences and gather the evidence, and that the guidelines are intended to help them as well.

The public consultation provides an opportunity for practitioners, other interested parties and the general public to contribute to the framing of the final guidance. I hope that the hon. Gentleman agrees that we should urge people with an interest in the issue to take part; I will ensure, as I hope he will, that as many colleagues as possible and those outside this place take the opportunity.

The interim guidelines set out four broad categories for prosecutors to consider when deciding on the appropriate charges. Have there been credible threats of violence? Are there communications that specifically target an individual? Has there been a breach of a court order? Finally, does the communication breach section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988 or section 127 of the Communications Act 2003, which the hon. Gentleman mentioned?

Malicious communication may warrant a far more serious charge being pursued. The interim guidelines are aimed at requiring the prosecutor to consider a range of potential offences that might arise. The hon. Gentleman rightly highlighted the deeply unpleasant practice of trolling in the case of Georgia Varley—a website set up to commemorate that young girl’s life was targeted. Under the interim guidelines, prosecutors are reminded that communications used to threaten and target others can give rise to a range of serious offences. The hon. Gentleman is right: the person who died would not be the target in such circumstances, but the relatives and the people who cared for that individual are targeted, or can be. When a particular person is targeted but a harassment charge is not possible, because of the legal requirements, clearly prosecutors would carefully weigh up whether they can take the case under section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act. It might well be in the public interest to do that.

Similarly, section 127 of the Communications Act provides an important safeguard against the misuse of social media, such as the sending of grossly offensive messages. The wording of the legislation is broad enough to encompass quite a range of behaviour. The guidelines should assist prosecutors in assessing each individual case. We do not want to restrict free speech but, as the hon. Gentleman said, with rights come responsibilities. While recognising important principles of free speech, the interim guidelines do not offer a charter for those who want deliberately and repeatedly to harass and cause distress. It is important to recognise that.

Another point to make to the hon. Gentleman is that paragraph 12.4 of the interim guidelines, the large category of messages, is set out as a particular category. There is then an analysis of the court cases concerning sections 1 and 127—the judges’ comments and how the cases should be looked at in the European context. All that is examined. Finally, there is a paragraph that deals with what the threshold would have to be in order to prosecute cases. It is therefore a more reasoned and complex exercise than might have been thought.

The requirement of prosecutors to prosecute cases of this sort has been demonstrated in cases that the hon. Gentleman is aware of, such as that of Sean Duffy, who was successfully prosecuted and sentenced to 18 weeks’ imprisonment following the death of a young lady. Matthew Woods was prosecuted under section 127 of the Communications Act and sentenced to eight weeks’ imprisonment for posting on a Facebook page grossly offensive messages regarding the missing children, April Jones and Madeleine McCann. It is wrong, however, to think that those would be the only cases involving social media to be charged and brought before the courts with the risk of imprisonment. Such offences are very much the ones that do not involve threats to kill, blackmail allegations or harassment charges. The hon. Gentleman should bear in mind that there are offences involving indictment and Crown court trials, with substantial sentences available, that could be used in appropriate cases.

The consultation runs until 13 March—

Sexual Abuse Offences

Oliver Heald Excerpts

Monday 3rd December 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Solicitor-General (Oliver Heald)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for South West Devon (Mr Streeter) on securing this debate. He is one of the most respected Members of the House—a solicitor who has practised in the courts and who is known for his passion and his commitment. I pay tribute to the active role he plays in supporting his constituents.

This evening my hon. Friend has pointed to issues about a specific case and the decisions taken by the Crown Prosecution Service, and he has also raised some wider matters about the approach that prosecutors take. He raised four key areas of concern about the case: whether the original decision to prosecute was right; the later decision to offer no evidence; how that decision was communicated to the complainants; and the effect of the decision on them.

My hon. Friend has been in correspondence with Barry Hughes, the chief Crown prosecutor for the south-west, and I believe that a meeting has been arranged for tomorrow to discuss these matters further. My hon. Friend is right to be concerned for his constituents, who after many years plucked up the courage to report serious sexual offences to the police. It is in the public interest for such reports to be made, however long ago the alleged offences occurred.

The charges in the case relate to a number of serious sexual offences, including rape. The prosecution was commenced and preliminary hearings took place in September and October 2011. The decision not to proceed with the prosecution was made in early January 2012, following further consideration, and the case was dismissed when the CPS offered no evidence at the plea and case management hearing on 9 January 2012.

My hon. Friend will be aware from his experience that the code for prosecutors provides a test in two parts as to whether a case should be pursued. The first is the evidential test and the second the public interest test. There is also a duty for the prosecutor to keep the issue under review as the case proceeds. If at any time the code test is not, or is no longer met, a prosecution cannot proceed.

In this case the allegation was a serious one and related to offences more than 50 years ago, which is a long passage of time, but the reviewing CPS lawyer was mindful of that delay and the potential difficulties. He gave careful consideration to the matter and authorised the police to make charges. At that point, counsel was instructed to conduct the case and advise, which is entirely normal procedure, and he did. He looked at the issue of the potential difficulties with the age of the allegations.

The assessment of how likely it is for a prosecution to succeed in such circumstances is not entirely straightforward. The prosecutor has to consider, on the particular facts of the case, the likelihood of the court deciding that the delay may prejudice a fair trial, and the prosecution has to be stopped if it is felt that there is a risk that an application on abuse of process would succeed.

In this case, once the CPS specialist rape prosecutor who was dealing with the case had the benefit of advice from counsel, he considered that a defence application to the court to stop the proceedings would be likely to succeed. The prosecution was, therefore, no longer satisfied that the test in the code for Crown prosecutors was met and the decision not to continue was taken reluctantly by the CPS, mindful of the distress that it could cause the complainants. It does not follow from that decision, however, that the complainants were or are not believed. Put simply, the decision was taken because, in this particular case, the passage of time may have undermined the fairness of proceedings on the individual facts.

I understand that on 5 January 2012, the police informed the complainants that no evidence would be offered at court and then confirmed to the prosecutor that this had taken place.

No evidence was offered at court and the case was dismissed on 9 January. Within 24 hours, the CPS wrote to the complainants informing them of the outcome and offering a face-to-face meeting. Two of the three complainants accepted the offer and a meeting took place on 27 April 2012. My hon. Friend has attended such a meeting with the complainants, the CPS and counsel, and I have learned with regret that the meeting was not satisfactory and did not provide the reassurance sought about the decision making in the case.

Before I come to my hon. Friend’s four points, I will deal with the wider issues. The CPS has made a huge effort over recent years to improve the prosecution of offences of serious violence and violence against women and girls. Since 2001, it has produced a great deal more guidance on domestic violence, rape and sexual offences, prostitution, human trafficking, and children and young people. There is a major effort to offer support to victims and witnesses. I have a particular interest in this area as a member of the inter-ministerial group formed to discuss these issues.

Between 2007-08 and 2011-12, the CPS prosecuted almost 20,000 more cases each year involving violence against women and girls. The number of convictions has risen accordingly and we now have the highest conviction rate on record. In rape prosecutions, there has been a 4% increase in the conviction rate year on year. That rate is continuing to increase. Rape cases are now prosecuted by specialist rape prosecutors in all CPS areas, who must satisfy a set of criteria that include attending compulsory training. Rape and serious sexual offences training is based on real-life evidence and includes experts from outside the CPS, including from the voluntary sector.

My hon. Friend mentioned the Savile case and the prosecution of cases of child sexual exploitation. The investigation and prosecution of such cases is particularly important to the Director of Public Prosecutions, who has led a review of the Rochdale case, which my hon. Friend will recall was particularly concerning. The DPP recently held a meeting with the CPS, the police and the third sector. Guidance on how such cases should be dealt with by prosecutors is due in the new year.

I will now turn to my hon. Friend’s specific questions. The initial decision to prosecute was taken by a specialist rape prosecutor. It is important to bear it in mind that abuse of process is complex and is dependent on the individual facts of the case. An initial view of a case can change during the course of the prosecution and, as the case develops, it must be kept under review. That is what happened here.

My hon. Friend asked what this case means for other allegations of abuse that took place 30 years ago or more. The CPS decision in this case was based on its individual facts. The CPS regularly prosecutes cases that go back more than 30 years. The Attorney-General and I refer cases in which the sentence is unduly lenient to the Court of Appeal and we have done that recently in abuse cases that go back many decades and that involve defendants who are over 70 years of age.

On the consultation with the complainants, the police informed the complainants of the decision before the prosecution was dropped and face-to-face meetings were offered, as I have said. However, I accept that those meetings did not provide the reassurance that my hon. Friend would have wanted.

The final point relates to the CPS’s subsequent handling of the explanation of the decision. In response to the comments of the defendant’s representative to the Plymouth Herald, the CPS district Crown prosecutor made a statement in general terms about the CPS’s decision making in the case, and there was also a statement by a police spokesman. However, I appreciate my hon. Friend’s concern on behalf of his constituents that more might have been said to correct the impression, created by the comments of others, that the CPS’s decision was based on anything other than the factors to which I have referred.

I would like to make it clear that I, the Attorney-General and the DPP are determined that cases of sexual violence are prosecuted robustly, with proper consideration for victims and witnesses. Although we do not direct the DPP on how to act, we meet him regularly to discuss these matters. I was sorry to hear the concerns that my hon. Friend outlined, but I am grateful to him for bringing this case to my attention. Although it is not possible to reopen the case, I will ensure that these matters are drawn to the attention of the DPP. I hope that my hon. Friend has a positive meeting with the chief Crown prosecutor tomorrow and I invite him to discuss the matter with me further after that if he wishes to do so.

Question put and agreed to.

Sergeant Nightingale

Oliver Heald Excerpts

Tuesday 20th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Solicitor-General (Oliver Heald)]

The Attorney-General is unable to be in the House this evening owing to a long-standing prior speaking engagement elsewhere in the country. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Canterbury (Mr Brazier) on securing the debate. He has a great interest in defence matters and is respected in the House—he serves with great distinction on the Select Committee on Defence. I thank him for his work. He spent a number of years serving in the Territorial Army, and I am happy to reply to the debate.

In the light of public comments, it is understandable that colleagues are concerned. It is important that hon. Members know the facts. Sergeant Nightingale was charged with two offences: possession of a prohibited firearm, which is a serious offence, and possessing ammunition. At the hearing, he pleaded guilty to both offences. He was represented by a solicitor with considerable experience in this specialised field, and by an eminent Queen’s counsel.

As has been said, in 2011 a search was conducted of a house rented by the military where Sergeant Nightingale was living. This was an ordinary house in an ordinary road. It followed an allegation made against another resident. During that search 336 rounds of live ammunition were found in a box under Sergeant Nightingale’s bed. In the wardrobe was a Glock self-loading pistol—a prohibited weapon—which is designed to discharge 9 mm bulleted cartridges from a spring-operated box-type magazine. There were three empty magazines. The gun, and the ammunition for it, made a serious, dangerous and fully functional weapon. He was away from the house on operations and the weapon was not secure.

Sergeant Nightingale was interviewed by the police and explained that he had brought the pistol back on conclusion of operations in Iraq in 2007. He said that he had taken it from secured premises at his base to his home in January 2011. He accepted that he had obtained the ammunition in the course of his duties as a training officer and that he had not got around to handing it in, describing his administration and working practices as poor. It is right that he explained that the Glock came as a present from local nationals, that it was his intention to have it deactivated and mounted, and that he had not intended to keep the item in its present form.

[Mr Brazier]

My hon. Friend said that Sergeant Nightingale brought the pistol back from Iraq. He came back without his equipment, escorting the bodies of two comrades with his commanding officer, Colonel Richard Williams. His equipment came back separately—others packed it, under the supervision of the military police.

[The Solicitor-General]

I was describing what he said in an interview. Of course, it is true—he made this clear and it was not disputed, as far as I am aware—that the property was moved from secure military circumstances to his home and that he was aware of that.

On Sergeant Nightingale’s state of health, it is right that in October 2009 he was running a jungle marathon and suffered a brain injury. That was serious and it is good that he was able to make a recovery and was declared fit for duty. The court martial set out the key facts, which it took into account in sentencing. That is a public document and is on the judiciary website www.judiciary.gov.uk. I suggest that people read the whole of the court’s judgment. The judge advocate took into account the

“very great service over the years”,

and accepted a lot of what was said about the weapon and ammunition being kept in the mess and then moved to the home in January 2011, the point that my hon. Friend just made.

The reasons for sentence refer to the potential for very great harm when military weapons, especially combined with suitable ammunition, are kept in insecure accommodation. The court considered that he

“knew full well…that such items were never to be held insecurely at your home”.

The reasons for sentence are set out. It is important to bear in mind that with a prohibited firearm, which this was, Parliament has said that there is a minimum term of five years’ imprisonment unless there are “exceptional circumstances”. The court found that there were exceptional circumstances and imposed the lesser sentence.

We have an independent system of prosecution and trial, both for civilians and for members of the armed forces. The decision to prosecute was taken by the Service Prosecuting Authority. In deciding whether to prosecute, the SPA considers first whether there is a realistic prospect of conviction—clearly there was in this case, because there were full admissions and a plea of guilty followed—and secondly whether it is in the public interest and the service interest for that to happen.

Parliament has decided that this offence is so serious that a minimum term of five years must be imposed, except in exceptional circumstances. The more serious the offence, the more likely it is that the public interest will favour a prosecution. That is what the code for prosecutors states. It is difficult to see how the prosecutor could ignore this strong message, sent by Parliament, underlining the seriousness of the offence.

[Dr Julian Lewis]

Did the police not decide that they did not wish to see a prosecution because no criminal intent was involved? Why should the military authorities take a different view?

[The Solicitor-General]

There is a protocol that decides where these cases are tried. The advantage from the serviceman’s point of view of being dealt with by court martial is that it often does not result in loss of rank or dismissal. In this case, the court martial said it hoped it would be possible, first, for the sergeant to keep his rank, and, secondly, that he would not be dismissed from the service. Had it wished, it could have recommended the loss of rank and service, but it did not. That was the decision.

My hon. Friend the Member for Dewsbury (Simon Reevell) made a point about the role of the Attorney-General. In the case he referred to, it is true that the court said that if a judge was unhappy with a prosecution and felt it was not necessarily in the public interest, the judge could refer it and say, “Look, you should discuss this with the Attorney-General.” But that is at the beginning of the case, before a conviction. In a case such as this, where there has been a conviction and the court has moved to sentence, the only way of challenging the decision is for the person concerned to appeal. Under this system, the sentence in the court martial is made not just by the judge advocate but by the five serving officers on the board. They all have an equal vote. It is worth making the point that there was Army representation and that two of the five were warrant officers.

[Simon Reevell]

I have the advantage of having been in the court at the time. On the court martial appeal, the court said, “The Attorney-General has a supervisory role, an example of which would be”—and it then gave that example. It was not a restrictive role in the way that might have been suggested.

[The Solicitor-General]

I have three minutes left, and superintendence is a complicated issue. There is statutory superintendence for the Serious Fraud Office and the Crown Prosecution Service, and there is a common law form of superintendence that applies to all prosecutions, but the Attorney-General cannot just say, “I’m stopping this prosecution.” The House would not want a situation where politicians can stop proceedings and where we move away from an independent prosecution service and an independent court system.

Like my hon. Friend the Member for Canterbury, I hold our armed forces in extremely high regard. They regularly put their lives at risk for our country, and we only recently remembered their sacrifice. Sergeant Nightingale has given great service over the years to the Army and the country, but the case was dealt with in accordance with the procedures and laws that Parliament has passed regarding the seriousness of weapons.

I am sure that my hon. Friend, in view of his own military service—this will apply to other hon. Friends here today—will understand instinctively the need to maintain the security of weapons and ammunition. In this case, possession of the weapon was prohibited by law because of the very nature of the weapon. It was being held insecurely, together with a large quantity of live ammunition, in an ordinary house, on an ordinary road. The way to challenge the conviction or sentence is to follow the correct procedure, which is to appeal.

[Mr Brazier]

May I suggest that my hon. Friend focuses on the Llewellyn case in Cardiff court, from as recently as 2008, where the Crown Prosecution Service, with none of the same mitigating circumstances, decided not to pursue the individual concerned for the two firearms found in the house?

[The Solicitor-General]

There is a whole range of circumstances in which cases can appear, but—

[Mr Brazier]

There is a service interest.

[The Solicitor-General]

But the first point I would make is that this is a particular offence—that of possessing a prohibited weapon, which we have said as a Parliament is an extremely serious matter. There were exceptional circumstances in this case; this is an exceptional man. However, if we want to challenge the decision of a court once it has been made—not at the beginning, when deciding whether to prosecute, but when the court has found the man guilty and sentenced him to a period of detention in a military facility—then I am afraid that has to be an appeal. That is our process; that is what we do in this country. We do not have politicians telling the independent judiciary—or, indeed, the independent prosecuting authorities—what to do. Much as I have a great deal of sympathy and understand the situation with this officer, I personally do not think that we can go around breaking important rules of that sort in this country.

Question put and agreed to.

Phone Hacking

Oliver Heald Excerpts

Wednesday 6th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Attorney-General]

As I am sure the right hon. Gentleman will be aware, the question of whether any organisation is a fit and proper person to own a broadcasting licence is a matter for Ofcom, and not the Secretary of State, under section 3 of the Broadcasting Act 1990. Indeed, the Secretary of State would not be allowed to get involved in that matter.

[Oliver Heald (North East Hertfordshire) (Con)]

On the previous occasions these matters were debated in the House, there were many concerns that constitutional issues and issues of privilege arose from the potential hacking of MPs’ telephones. Since that time, the Select Committee on Standards and Privileges has considered this issue and produced its 14th report. In framing the inquiries suggested today, would it be possible to take account of the recommendations of that report, which suggest some ways of clarifying this quite difficult situation?

[The Attorney-General]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point. I have no doubt that that factor, along with every single representation made by Members of this House on how they think the inquiry or inquiries should be conducted, can be taken into account.

--- Later in debate ---

[Oliver Heald (North East Hertfordshire) (Con)]

May I start by picking up on a point that the right hon. Member for Bermondsey and Old Southwark (Simon Hughes) made? He said that celebrities and Members of Parliament having their phones hacked into was bad enough. However, whenever a child goes missing or there is a death in suspicious circumstances, people up and down the land and parents in particular feel a sense of dread and great concern. To think that the allegations that are coming out now relate to such incidents is truly shocking, and that sense of shock is felt right across the House.

When we last debated the matter on 9 September last year, concern was expressed about the position of Members of Parliament. The right hon. Gentleman made a speech, as did the hon. Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant), who has been so dogged on the issue. The point they made was not that an MP is above anyone else, because of course they are not, but that we have ancient rights that are very important to democracy. We call them privilege, but they are really about having freedom of expression to come here and put our case for the people whom we represent without being impeded in that work. The fact that those rights might have been interfered with in the course of the scandal was why the issue was referred to the Committee on Standards and Privileges.

Of course, the Committee was in the position that my right hon. and learned Friend the Attorney-General described. We were not able to look into the detail of the allegations, because we did not want to prejudice what the police were doing any more than anybody else. However, we did look into the principle of how our rights are affected in the modern idiom. Our rights were put forward in 1688, I believe, in the Bill of Rights, which explained what we now call privilege. It was the following year, in 1689, that somebody started trying to interfere by intercepting our letters, so this is not a new problem.

However, the Committee considered whether we needed to do something to tackle the problem in the modern context. We came to the conclusion, first, that it was necessary for us to debate whether it is just parliamentary activities that should be covered by privilege, or whether it should also include constituency work. We also thought that there was now a case for a privileges Act that would set out what our privileges are and what they mean in the modern context.

I strongly support the setting up of inquiries, but let us not forget that it is important to tackle the issues set out in the Committee’s 14th report of this Session. I hope that it might be possible for the Government to bring forward a draft privileges Bill fairly soon, so that we can have important debates on a matter that affects the rights of the public in this country. They are perhaps misdescribed as privilege, because they are the rights of the people and are very important.