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Intelligence and Security Committee

The House would benefit from a little more openness about what the problem is. There were eight months between the Prime Minister's statement and the Committee receiving the guidance. There were a number of good reasons for that: it is very complex, and it had to go round the Law Officers and all the other Departments. We then got stuck into it, took evidence, and published to the Prime Minister our report on that guidance, with recommendations. So the draft guidance and the report both exist, and they are the property of the Prime Minister. The problem is that there is a difference of opinion about something that we have written in our report, which needs to be resolved. That is not going to change our report, however. Whether it changes the Government's guidance or not is another matter. I hope that that helps the House to understand where the dilemma is, because that is at the heart of the matter. We have reported, and that report must, at some stage, be published. Further interviews will take place with the Foreign Secretary and the Home Secretary in 10 days' time, and if that changes something that we write, it will be an addition, not a substitution, because the Committee has unanimously signed off the report that has gone to the Prime Minister. I hope that that is helpful.