Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the metropolitan police require a referral from the Cabinet Office in order to launch a criminal investigation into the unauthorised disclosure of information relating to Huawei from a meeting of the National Security Council.

The policy of Government is as set out in Paragraph 21 ‘Official information: standards of conduct and procedures’ and states, "The police are entirely operationally independent of Government and have the right and duty to investigate criminal activity wherever it occurs. No part of Government is above the law. In respect of unauthorised disclosure of official information under, for example, the Official Secrets Act, if the police find evidence of a suspected breach of the criminal law, it is entirely within the powers of the police to begin an investigation under their own auspices, whether or not the Government has raised the incident with them."

A copy is in the Library of the House and is available at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/228774/7863.pdf