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Prisons: Woodhill

My Lords, I thank the Minister for coming to the House rapidly and repeating the Statement made in the other place. Yesterday, the Home Secretary telephoned the shadow Home Secretary to say that the letter that he had sent to No. 10, could not be found. We accept that. The Minister confirmed that the Wilson doctrine remains in force and that there have been no changes in process or practice, given the duty under the doctrine to notify the House of any such changes. Will the Minister confirm that the doctrine applies equally to your Lordships’ House? He also confirmed that this alleged action was in breach of the spirit of the doctrine and announced an inquiry, which we welcome. On this side of the House, we also welcome the fact that the inquiry has come and will be conducted speedily. We also hope that it will be thorough. We feel that, even now, it should be possible for the Minister to be able to give an answer to the following question. Who, under the rules that he described, authorised this action? If it was a policeman, at what rank was it authorised? Was the Chief Surveillance Commissioner aware? More generally, no doubt the inquiry will reveal in what other ways the authorities failed to follow proper procedure and whether any breaches of the applicable protocol were accidental or a deliberate and premeditated short-circuiting of the system. In particular, the House will wish to know whether it was known in advance that a Member of Parliament would be bugged and, if so, whether an explicit decision was taken not to switch off the recording equipment. It will also wish to know whether any higher authorisation was sought for any such decision, if such a decision was taken. The Government will need to establish whether this is an isolated case or whether the MP concerned has been bugged on other occasions, and whether other MPs, or indeed Members of your Lordships’ House, have been bugged in the past. It will be necessary to have a thorough inquiry, evidently conducted by a senior judge, to establish the wider facts. An important substantive issue arises from this. Everyone in Parliament understands and accepts the virtually absolute nature of the privileged relationship governing communications between a Member of Parliament and a constituent. The question arises: what would happen if a Member of Parliament were to become implicated in actions or communications relating to a terrorist plot? Frankly, and perhaps unsurprisingly, the Wilson doctrine is silent on this. We on this side of the House feel that the inquiry might usefully consider these issues. This case has exposed two rather serious risks. First, the Executive can apparently ride roughshod over the relationship between an MP and his constituents—a relationship that is the basis of parliamentary democracy. Secondly, the necessary authorisations for secret anti-terrorist activity are apparently being ignored. The Government need to reassure this House on these two points, among others, and to do so quickly.