DAVID Davis has been accused of keeping Parliament “in the dark” after handing over edited versions of analysis of the potential impact of Brexit on 58 sectors of the UK economy.
The handover of the documents to the Commons Committee on Exiting the EU, chaired by Labour MP Hilary Benn, came a day ahead of the deadline agreed by the Brexit Secretary. The committee will meet today to decide whether to publish all or part of the documents.
In a letter to Benn, Davis said the papers had been redacted because there was no guarantee the committee would keep them secret.
“Given that we have received no assurances from the committee regarding how any information passed will be used, we have sought not to include commercially, market and negotiation sensitive information. Delivering a successful outcome to our EU exit negotiations for the whole country requires keeping some information confidential for the purposes of the negotiations.”
In the letter, also delivered to Lord Jay, Benn’s counterpart in the upper chamber, Davis called for a meeting before any decision to publish the information.
“I am sure you recognise that there are aspects of the analyses which may still be sensitive to the negotiations especially in the context of this particular point in time. I would therefore appreciate the opportunity to discuss these sectoral analyses further before any decision is taken to share the information more widely.”
Davis acknowledged the coverage of each sector “differs in terms of length and level of detail”.
He agreed to release the documents after Labour won a Commons vote on November 1 on a “humble address” to the Queen asking for what it termed the “impact assessments” to be provided to the committee.
Labour’s motion was passed without a vote earlier this month after ministers indicated the government would not oppose it.
But there was confusion over whether it would force Davis to release the papers, as opposition day motions are not normally binding on the government.Commons Speaker John Bercow said the procedure used by Labour has “traditionally been regarded as binding or effective”, and said he would be willing to consider an accusation of contempt if the government failed to respond.Davis confirmed in a letter to Benn two days later he was making arrangements to comply, but insisted it was not the case 58 sectoral impact assessments existed in the form suggested by the motion. He said the Department for Exiting the European Union had drawn up a “wide mix of qualitative and quantitative analysis, contained in a range of documents.”
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