Gerry Sutcliffe (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Bradford South, Labour)

On a point of order, Mr. Bayley. I want to clarify a point about written evidence that was raised last week. The question was what constitutes written evidence for the purposes of this Committee. I shall begin by clarifying that this is a parliamentary matter, not a departmental one, but I am happy to offer my assistance to the Committee. The power of Public Bill Committees to receive written evidence is set out in Standing Order No. 84A. What constitutes written evidence for the purposes of the Committee is any submission sent to the parliamentary scrutiny unit that is relevant to the topic of the Bill and which the Chair of the Committee agrees to accept as evidence. Submissions accepted through that process are then formally known as written evidence to the Committee and will be made public and subject to parliamentary privilege.

Having explained the process, I should like to return to the question of the disc of evidence from an informal oral evidence session organised on 10 January that was handed to me last week. I am pleased to return the said disc and a transcript of its contents. The transcript, I am afraid, needs some further work to identify the speakers and so I will it pass back to the hon. Member for Hornchurch, with an extra copy so that he does not lose it and so that it does not get filed away. I am sure that he will make the relevant additions. Clearly we are happy to accept the spirit of what is on the disc, and I am sure that appropriate amendments will be made and that the disc will then be presented back to the Committee by the route that I have suggested. I hope that that meets with the Committee’s approval.

James Brokenshire (Shadow Minister (Homeland Security), Home Affairs; Hornchurch, Conservative)

Further to that point of order, Mr. Bayley. May I thank the Minister for arranging the transcript and for dealing with the disc appropriately? We will obviously revise the transcript, which he has now handed back to us. May I put on record my thanks to the Minister, his officials and team for arranging that for the benefit of the Committee as a whole?

Hugh Bayley (York, City of, Labour)

It is nice to begin this morning’s proceedings with an act of theatre, complete with the casting of discs across the Committee Room. As Chairman, I rule that the Minister is right. The matter of determining what constitutes written evidence is a matter for Parliament, and it rests with the Chair of the Committee. The disc and transcript currently have purely informal status, but if a member of the  Committee were to submit the transcript or other documents to the scrutiny unit, it would be brought to the attention of the Chair, who would determine whether it is formal, written evidence.