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Inquiry Details

Disputed claim of privilege and independent legal arbiter reports (March 2020)

On 24 March 2020, the House referred to the committee the authority to undertake the role usually performed by the House in dealing with disputed claims of privilege over returns to order under standing order 52.

(1) That this House notes that the opportunity for the House to sit over the coming months may be limited due to ongoing public health concerns.  

(2) That, until the House orders otherwise, if the House is not sitting due to ongoing public health concerns and is not expected to meet within one week:       

(a) on receiving a report of the Independent Legal Arbiter appointed to evaluate a disputed claim of privilege on documents returned to the House under standing order 52 the Clerk is to refer the report to the Privileges Committee for consideration,  

(b) the Privileges Committee is authorised to undertake the role usually performed by the House in dealing with disputed claims of privileges over returns to order under standing order 52, including taking the decision to make public the report of the Independent Legal Arbiter and any documents over which privilege has been claimed but not upheld by the Independent Legal Arbiter,  

(c) any document authorised to be made public by the committee under this resolution is deemed to have been presented to the House and published by authority of the House, and  

(d) on the next sitting day, the committee is to report to the House what action, if any, it has taken under this resolution.


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