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MR SPEAKER’S PROTOCOL ON THE EXECUTION OF A SEARCH WARRANT IN THE PRECINCTS OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS

1. In my statement of 3 December 2008 (OR col 3) I said I would issue a protocol to all Members on the searching of Members’ offices. In future a warrant will always be required for a search of a Members’ office or access to a Member’s parliamentary papers including his electronic records and any such warrant will be referred to me for my personal decision.

2. Although much of the precincts of the House are open to the public, there are parts of the buildings which are not public. The House controls access to its precincts for a variety of reasons, including security, confidentiality and effective conduct of parliamentary business.

3. Responsibility for controlling access to the precincts of the House has been vested by the House in me. It is no part of my duties as Speaker to impede the proper administration of justice, but it is of equal concern that the work of the House and of its Members is not unnecessarily hindered.

4. The precincts of Parliament are not a haven from the law. A criminal offence committed within the precincts is no different from an offence committed outside and is a matter for the courts. It is long established that a Member may be arrested within the precincts.

5. In cases where the police wish to search within Parliament, a warrant must be obtained and any decision relating to the execution of that warrant must be referred to me. In all cases where any Officer or other member of the staff of the House is made aware that a warrant is to be sought the Clerk of the House, Speaker’s Counsel, the Speaker’s Secretary and the Serjeant at Arms must be informed. No Officer or other member of the staff of the House may undertake any duty of confidentiality which has the purpose or effect of preventing or impeding communication with these Officers.

6. I will consider any warrant and will take advice on it from senior officials. As well as satisfying myself as to the formal validity of the warrant, I will consider the precision with which it specifies the material being sought, its relevance to the charge brought and the possibility that the material might be found elsewhere. I reserve the right to seek the advice of the Attorney General and Solicitor General.

7. I will require a record to be provided of what has been seized, and I may wish to attach condititions to the police handling of any parliamentary material discovered in a search until such time as any issue of privilege has been resolved.

Cont.

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8. Any search of a Member’s office or belongings will only proceed in the presence of the Serjeant at Arms, Speaker’s Counsel or their deputies. The Speaker may attach conditions to such a search which require the police to describe to a senior parliamentary official the nature of any material being seized which may relate to a Member’s parliamentary work and may therefore be covered by parliamentary privilege. In the latter case, the police shall be required to sign an undertaking to maintain the confidentiality of that material removed, until such time as any issue of privilege has been resolved.

9. If the police remove any document or equipment from a Member’s office, they will be required to treat any data relating to individual constituents with the same degree of care as would apply in similar circumstances to removal of information about a client from a lawyer’s office.

10. The execution of a warrant shall not constitute waiver of privilege with respect to any parliamentary material which may be removed by the police.

11. In view of the concern shown by Members, I have circulating this document without delay, but I shall take into account any representations by Members for its revision and will issue a revised document, should this be necesary.

The Speaker

On 10th December 2008 I requested a copy of this protocol, originally issued by the Speaker on 8th December, from the House of Commons Information Office (HCIO). The Enquiries Manager informed me that no digital copy was available, and very kindly sent me a hardcopy in the post. It arrived on 12th December, in a House of Commons Library envelope with “Contributing to a well informed democracy” on the front, and franked “HOUSE OF COMMONS · SPEAKER”.

The protocol itself consists of two stapled A4 pages, apparently a photocopy of a fax which had been originally sent to the HCIO, since its number appears at the top of the second page, along with a date, the day of which is missing; I have not transcribed this header but the rest of the content is complete. I typed it up on the morning that I received it. I believe that the document is under Parliamentary copyright, which would subject it to the following terms:

“All Parliamentary copyrights are reserved. The material listed may be reproduced without formal permission for the purposes of non-commercial research, private study and for criticism, review and news reporting provided that the material is appropriately attributed.”

I’ve emailed the Office of Public Sector Information to clarify the situation regarding copyright and publishing. Obviously I can’t guarantee that my transcription of the document is accurate, but I’ve done the best that I can.