Debate on plan to end automatic naming of arrested MPs
Commons votes to end automatic naming of arrested MPs
(35 minutes later)
MPs who have been arrested will not automatically be identified under plans being debated in the Commons.
Any arrested MP will not automatically be identified in the Commons after MPs backed changes to its procedures.
Instead, the MP involved would be consulted and only named if there is an issue of "parliamentary privilege or constitutional significance" at stake.
In future, the MP involved will be consulted and named only if there is an issue of "parliamentary privilege or constitutional significance" at stake.
The cross-party Procedure Committee says revealing names of arrested MPs is incompatible with the right to privacy enshrined in human rights laws.
The cross-party Procedure Committee said revealing names of arrested MPs was incompatible with a privacy right.
Minister Therese Coffey said it was up to the House of Commons to decide.
Chairman Charles Walker said he was not asking for special treatment for MPs but for the law to be applied equally.
In its report, published in December last year, the committee said "the present practice of the House in requiring the Speaker to publish the fact of a member's arrest regardless of circumstance is, in its generalised and non-discretionary application, incompatible with the right to privacy".
The Commons approved changes to the existing rules, which require the police to notify the Speaker when an MP is arrested and for the Speaker in turn to tell the House, without a vote.
'Correcting an anomaly'
Mr Walker, the Tory MP for Broxbourne, in Hertfordshire, told the Commons that MPs should have the same rights to privacy as any other citizen, and in future their names should not be put in the public domain if they were arrested, unless this was directly connected to their role as an MP.
The government insisted the change brings MPs into line with the rest of the public.
But Labour MP John Mann argued that it would give MPs special rights in law that do not apply to everyone else.
A source told the Independent on Sunday: "The anomaly, as far as it exists, is not that MPs are trying to get special treatment - rather, it's the other way round. At the moment MPs are named but the public aren't, so this is just correcting that anomaly."
Deputy Commons leader Therese Coffey said it was up to the Commons to decide although the government has indicated that the change brings MPs into line with the rest of the public.
The Procedure Committee report revealed that in the last Parliament, Tory MPs Nigel Evans and David Ruffley were named after their arrest. Mr Evans was acquitted of sexual offences and Mr Ruffley cautioned for assault.
The Procedure Committee's recent report revealed that in the last Parliament, Tory MPs Nigel Evans and David Ruffley were named after their arrests. Mr Evans was later acquitted of sexual offences and Mr Ruffley cautioned for assault.
Former Labour MP Eric Joyce was arrested four times, and Green MP Caroline Lucas was arrested during a anti-fracking protest and later acquitted of obstruction.
Green MP Caroline Lucas was arrested during an anti-fracking protest and later acquitted of obstruction.
Meanwhile it emerged that police have involved in a total of five cases linked to MPs expenses under the current system, with none of the politicians identified.
Meanwhile it has emerged that police have been involved in a total of five cases linked to MPs' expenses under the current system, with none of the politicians identified.
Public trust
In December it emerged that the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), the MPs' expenses watchdog, had referred three potentially criminal cases to police in March without any public announcement, or identifying the individuals involved.
In December it emerged that the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), the MPs' expenses watchdog, had referred three potentially criminal cases to police in March without any public announcement, or identifying the individuals involved.
The Metropolitan Police opened a fourth investigation in February 2015 into another MP following a public complaint, and is "liaising within IPSA".
A Metropolitan Police Service spokeswoman said: "IPSA have made three referrals to the MPS - two in February 2015, and one in June. Of those, two investigations are ongoing.
"An assessment of the third referral resulted in a 33-year-old woman, an employee of an MP, receiving a caution in April for fraud by false representation.
"A fourth investigation, which commenced in February 2015 following a public complaint and in liaison with IPSA, also remains ongoing."
The Sunday Telegraph reported that IPSA disclosed in response to a Freedom of Information request that it referred a fifth MP to a police force "outside London" in May last year.
Sir Alistair Graham, the former chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, told the newspaper that IPSA has a "public duty" to reveal the identity of those investigated even though people are presumed innocent until they are convicted.
"If IPSA have referred it it usually means there is some prima facie evidence which justifies a criminal investigation," Sir Alistair said.
"This air of secrecy will erode public trust at a time when public trust is not considered to be very high."
