Member

Early engagement is better. There is nothing that needs to be hidden from a Select Committee, and we have a well-worn route for making sure that we deal with confidential, sensitive information properly, whether through a reading room mechanism or private briefings. Obviously, we prefer to do most of our work in public, but we recognise that in order to reassure this House and the British public, at certain times—maybe not forever, but at certain moments in time—we may need to have a conversation earlier, when information is not fully in the public domain. I think we are trusted to do that responsibly and well, so could the Minister reassure us on that as well? Although I think he has confirmed this, could he confirm again for the record that the clock ticks down only on parliamentary sitting days?