Parliamentary Standards Bill

This is another area that interests me. I remember a number of cases where proceedings in committee were suspended pending actions in the courts. There is one particular thing that I want to refer to, and then I will come to a second one. The first is a letter sent in 1994 by Mr Neil Hamilton to the chairman of the then Members’ Interests Select Committee, Sir Geoffrey Johnson-Smith, in which he argued that because he was bringing a libel action against the Guardian newspaper, he should be entitled to secure a suspension of proceedings on a complaint that was made against him by Mr Alex Carlile—currently known as Lord Carlile of Berriew. The response of the committee chairman, on the advice of the Clerk, was that the proceedings in the court on a civil libel action should have priority over proceedings in Parliament and dealing with the complaint. I very strongly objected to that at the time. The noble Lord's amendment deals with criminal actions. However, if that is to be spelt out in legislation, the issue of civil actions must equally be spelt out. It meant that for a long period of time no action could be taken in the Hamilton case. I want now to refer to another action, in the case of Mr George Galloway. The suspension of the commissioner’s investigation into the Galloway case spanned more than one Parliament. The commissioner’s inquiry began in April 2003 and the committee’s final report was made in July 2007. In other words, a four-year delay arose out of potential proceedings—actually they were not even proceedings; the police were carrying out an inquiry and the inquiry went on over a long period. The committee noted in its report that the legal proceedings delayed completion of the commissioner’s investigation of the complaints for nearly three years. That led, in 2007-08, to the Commons Committee on Standards and Privileges producing its eighth report, The Complaints System and the Criminal Law. I would like to place on record the report’s findings on the very matters raised by the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin. Under the heading: ""Statement agreed between the Chairman of the Committee on Standards and Privileges, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards and the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis following their meeting on 3 April 2008"," it later states: ""The Chairman reiterated the Committee's belief in the general principle that criminal proceedings against Members, where these are considered appropriate, should take precedence over the House's own disciplinary proceedings … Where the Metropolitan Police receive information which suggests that a Member of Parliament may have committed a criminal offence, they will take the decision on whether to institute inquiries on their own initiative, on the same basis as they would in any other case, and without regard to whether the same information had formed any part of a ""complaint to the Parliamentary Commissioner. The Metropolitan Police undertook to inform the Parliamentary Commissioner in the normal course of events if they were considering initiating criminal inquiries into a Member, with a view to establishing whether the alleged conduct was also the subject of a complaint under the Code.""The Parliamentary Commissioner confirmed that he had regard, where appropriate, to the possibility of criminal behaviour when investigating complaints he received against Members of Parliament. He would continue the practice in specific cases of liaising with the Metropolitan Police or other relevant force whenever he considered it appropriate to do so, initiating the process at the earliest opportunity. All parties welcomed this"," apart from me. You see, I am concerned about Members of Parliament with pockets full of cash being able to use legal proceedings to defer decisions being taken by the Committee on Standards and Privileges in the House of Commons and, in this case, investigations by the commissioner. When the Al Fayed saga was unfolding in the House of Commons, every week the Committee on Standards and Privileges received yet another document from the Fayed empire. All I am saying is: let us be very wary about putting this sort of principle into legislation. It just strengthens the position of Members of Parliament who would seek to abuse the House, avoid justice in the committee and bring Parliament into further disrepute. I am afraid that I oppose this amendment very strongly. Indeed, it may well be that this legislation should deal with the issue of civil action, which I think is even more dangerous.