---

Speaker's Committee on the Search of Offices on the Parliamentary Estate

No. I said that we held parliamentary privilege not on our own behalf, but on behalf of our constituents. The second issue at stake is the relationship of trust between an MP and their constituents—trust that means that constituents feel able to share information with a Member on the basis of confidentiality. Constituents do not give information to their Member of Parliament on the basis that one day it might be pored over by police officers. Parliamentary privilege is not our privilege; it is the people's privilege. There is also a practical issue at stake. The House authorities do indeed have responsibility for the House estate, including offices, but the contents of an office—the papers and information in electronic form—do not belong to the House. They belong to the Member, so it was not for the House authorities to consent to the search of my hon. Friend's papers and electronic information. We need to know not just why a search took place without a warrant, but in the absence of a warrant, why it took place without my hon. Friend's consent. The work of the Committee is not to decide who should have spoken to whom. It is about these fundamental questions of privilege, an MP's ability to do their job, and constituents' rights to confidentiality.