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Speaker's Statement

Mr. Speaker, I think that there has been a general welcome in the House for the mechanism that you have suggested for dealing with a very grave and serious matter that goes far beyond party. It is about whether constituents and others can communicate with Members of Parliament safe in the knowledge that the information will be held in confidence, and for the use for which they have directed it. However, the procedure that you have outlined differs in one respect from the procedure that would have been used if it had been entirely and only a matter of privilege. A Standards and Privileges Committee report gives the House an opportunity to vote quite specifically on what measures should be taken. Are you satisfied that following the procedure that you have described, the House will have an opportunity—as a whole, and with the full support of the House—to say to its officers, ““We direct and will support you in the robust defence of the right of constituents to communicate with Members””? The House as a whole needs to say that if these important rights are to be protected.