In brief

Section 34 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FIA 2000) provides an exemption from the normal section 1 duties—the duty to ‘confirm or deny’ whether information is held, and the duty to provide it—where necessary to avoid a breach of parliamentary privilege. The exemption is absolute, which means there is no public interest test.

A certificate signed by the appropriate authority (the Speaker, in relation to the Commons, or the Clerk of the Parliaments, in relation to the Lords) certifying that exemption is, or at any time was, required for the purpose of avoiding an infringement of the privileges of either House of Parliament shall be conclusive evidence of that fact.

How does Parliamentary privilege relate to freedom of information?

As well as the protection offered by Article 9 of the Bill of Rights against the questioning of proceedings in Parliament, Parliamentary privilege also protects the right of each House to manage its own affairs and to exercise sole jurisdiction over its own proceedings. This right is known as ‘exclusive cognizance’. For the