Privileges

Tonia Antoniazzi Excerpts

Wednesday 29th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Tonia Antoniazzi (Gower) (Lab)]

I thank the Leader of the House for bringing this motion to the House, and I thank the hon. Member for South Leicestershire (Alberto Costa), Chair of the Privileges Committee, and the Committee’s members for the work they have done on this matter.

On 9 July, I presented a petition from Tim Suter, the secretary of the Omagh bombing inquiry, asking the House to allow the inquiry to access unreported evidence from the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee. As current Chair of the Committee, I know how important it is that the inquiry should be able to do its work. I was happy to present the petition as the first step in getting the inquiry the information it needed.

It is an important principle that the House has control of parliamentary papers. Committees can choose to report those papers to the House, but if they do not do so, those papers are only accessible if the House so orders. It is also important that people who give evidence to a Committee know that if their evidence is not reported, it will not be released without proper consideration of the issues. As it was unreported evidence, my Committee —the current Committee—did not have access to the evidence. There was no way for the House to assess whether the information could be published in whole or redacted, or what the inquiry might need.

The Privileges Committee was asked to look at this matter and the papers were referred to it. I am grateful to the Committee for its work. As the Committee makes clear, it is possible that some of the information in the transcript may need to be restricted. It invites the House to take the unusual step of handing over material that it has not seen. I think that is entirely appropriate. The inquiry knows what information is useful to it. The Committee has received written confirmation that the evidence released to it will be treated according to its disclosure protocol to check material relevant to national security and that there will be a security check. In these circumstances, I support the motion, since I am confident that careful consideration has been given to the issues involved.