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Parliamentary Standards Bill

I am out of practice again, Mrs. Heal. I wish to speak to amendments 65, 66, 64 and 67, which relate to privilege and should be read in conjunction with amendment 94, which will be debated under clause 10, should we get that far. The importance of privilege was underlined by the learned Clerk in the evidence that he gave yesterday. It is well to remind ourselves of the purpose of privilege. He said:""If there was not that freedom"" of speech,""Parliament could not…function effectively."" He said later:""I think the traditional view in this country, the United States and a lot of other countries, is that if speech is not free in the House of Commons, it is not free anywhere…we are not unique by any means. All systems have immunities and they are recognised."" Most importantly of all, he made it clear that""if you start to make exceptions to parliamentary privilege for one reason or another, under one Act or another, eventually you will undermine the whole principle."" The Chairman then said:""The earlier decisions to do this are now being adduced in support of the current proposals,"" to which the learned Clerk answered yes. That is why we should tackle the question of privilege in these debates.