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

I have dealt with secrecy. The answer is that all Committees have the power to meet in secret for some of the time. Nobody—including the right hon. Member for Maidenhead—has suggested that the Committee should meet in secret all the time. If we are holding the police to account, we will want them to put their argument in public, because some of us believe that they might not have acted appropriately either. They are not above the law, just as we are not, but the activities, communications and possessions of those elected to represent the citizens of Britain need to be protected.