The Clerk of The House - House of Commons

1.    The complainant has requested that the House of Commons disclose all written evidence submitted to the Scrutiny Committee in relation to the Children's Well-Being and Schools Bill. The House of Commons refused the request citing section 34(1) of FOIA which protects information whose disclosure would infringe the privileges of Parliament.The Commissioner’s decision is that that written evidence submitted to a Public Bill Committee forms part of the proceedings of Parliament and therefore falls within the scope of parliamentary privilege. Therefore the House of Commons was entitled to withhold the information by virtue of section 34(1).