CR1-10-10-18-Session1_IMX30_1.mxf

Session: am
Session date: 2010 Oct 18

CASE ID: UKSC 2010/0195
Case name: R v Chaytor and others (Appellants)
Case summary:
Judgment: The Supreme Court unanimously dismisses the appeals. Lord Phillips (President) and Lord Rodger give the lead judgments. The Court holds that neither Article 9 nor the exclusive jurisdiction of the House of Commons poses any bar to the jurisdiction of the Crown Court to try the Appellants.
Reasons for the judgment: The issue under Article 9 was whether making claims for parliamentary expenses fell within the phrase "proceedings in Parliament". The Court held that conduct of a Member is not privileged merely because it occurs within the House of Commons. The principal matter to which Article 9 is directed is freedom of speech and debate in the Houses of Parliament and parliamentary committees. In considering whether actions outside the Houses and committees fall within parliamentary proceedings because of their connection to them, it is necessary to consider the nature of that connection and whether, if such actions do not enjoy privilege, this is likely to impact adversely on the core or essential business of Parliament. On this basis, submission of expenses claims does not qualify for the protection of privilege. Scrutiny of claims by the courts will not inhibit freedom of speech or debate. The only thing that it will inhibit is the making of dishonest claims: [48]. Parliament has expressed the same conclusion and although the extent of parliamentary privilege is ultimately a matter for the courts, it is one on which the courts will pay careful regard to the views of Parliament: [16]; [59]. There are also good policy reasons for giving Article 9 a narrow ambit, namely that its protection is absolute and, where it applies, it denies redress to those injured by civil wrongdoing and prevents Members being prosecuted for conduct which is criminal, despite the fact that Parliament has only limited penal powers of its own: [61]. On the exclusive jurisdiction issue, Parliament has to a large extent relinquished any claim to have exclusive jurisdiction over the administrative business of the two Houses. Nor does Parliament assert an exclusive jurisdiction to deal with criminal conduct within the walls of Parliament, even where it relates to or interferes with proceedings in committee or the Houses. The courts and Parliament have different, overlapping, jurisdictions. Parliament can hear proceedings for contempt of Parliament and a court can try the offender for the crime. The area of activity to which the present prosecutions relate is administrative: it concerns the implementation of the expenses scheme, not the decisions of parliamentary committees in respect of the scheme itself. The expenses scheme merely provides the setting for the alleged offences and there is nothing in the allegations against the Appellants which relates to the core activities of Parliament, namely the legislative and deliberative processes, however widely construed. The House of Commons has asserted a disciplinary jurisdiction over expenses claims and has set up a review of such claims under Sir Thomas Legg. It has not, however, asserted exclusive jurisdiction. On the contrary, it has cooperated with the police investigation and excluded from the claims referred to Sir Thomas Legg any that are under investigation by the police: [89]-[92]; [122]-[123]. For these reasons, the Court held that the prosecutions neither infringed Article 9 nor impinged upon the exclusive jurisdiction of Parliament.
Hearing start date: 2010 Oct 18
Hearing end date: 2010 Oct 19