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Appendix Two

Unauthorised disclosure of committee proceedings

Proposed Resolution of the Senate

Unauthorised disclosure of committee proceedings proposed resolution of the senate

1. The Senate confirms that any disclosure of evidence or documents submitted to a committee, of documents prepared by a committee, or of deliberations of a committee, without the approval of the committee or of the Senate, may be treated by the Senate as a contempt.
   
   
2. The Senate reaffirms its resolution of 20 June 1996, relating to procedures to be followed by committees in cases of unauthorised disclosure of committee proceedings.
   
   
3. The Senate provides the following guidelines to be observed by committees in applying that resolution, and declares that the Senate will observe the guidelines in determining whether to refer a matter to the Committee of Privileges:
   
   
   1. Unless there are particular circumstances involving actual or potential substantial interference with the work of a committee or of the Senate, the following kinds of unauthorised disclosure should not be raised as matters of privilege:
      
      
      1. disclosure of a committee report in the time between the substantial conclusion of the committee's deliberations on the report and its presentation to the Senate;
         
         
      2. disclosure of other documents prepared by a committee and not published by the committee, where the committee would have published them, or could appropriately have published them, in any event, or where they contain only research or publicly-available material, or where their disclosure is otherwise inconsequential;
         
         
      3. disclosure of documents and evidence submitted to a committee and not published by the committee, where the committee would have published them, or could appropriately have published them, in any event;
         
         
      4. disclosure of private deliberations of a committee where the freedom of the committee to deliberate is unlikely to be significantly affected.
         
         
   2. The following kinds of unauthorised disclosure are those for which the contempt jurisdiction of the Senate should primarily be reserved, and which should therefore be raised as matters of privilege:
      
      
      1. disclosure of documents or evidence submitted to a committee where the committee has deliberately decided to treat the documents or evidence as in camera material, for the protection of witnesses or others, or because disclosure would otherwise be harmful to the public interest;
         
         
      2. disclosure of documents prepared by a committee where that involves disclosure of material of the kind specified in paragraph (a);
         
         
      3. disclosure of private deliberations of a committee where that involves disclosure of that kind of material, or significantly impedes the committee's freedom to deliberate.
         
         
   3. An unauthorised disclosure not falling into the categories in guidelines 1 and 2 should not be raised as a matter of privilege unless it involves actual or potential substantial interference with the work of a committee or of the Senate.
      
      
   4. When considering any unauthorised disclosure of material in the possession of a committee, the committee should consider whether there was any substantive reason for not publishing that material.

(Extract from Submissions and Documents, pp. 5-6).

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