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

I will see how the timing goes. Professor Bradley, professor of constitutional law at Edinburgh university, says that there is, effectively, protection for MPs' correspondence in certain circumstances, but this is no more than a common-law right based on case law. In fact, the police had a perfect right to search the hon. Gentleman's correspondence without a warrant, and indeed without anyone's permission. The shadow Home Secretary spoke of a statute that was ““a gift from the Conservative party””. Let me quote from another statute that was a gift from the Conservative party, the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. Section 18(1) states that, following arrest,"““a constable may enter and search any premises occupied or controlled by a person who is under arrest for an arrestable offence, if he has reasonable grounds for suspecting””—[Interruption.]" This is a Tory law. Let me continue.