Damian Green to find out Home Office leaks inquiry fate

Tory immigration spokesman Damian Green is waiting to learn if he faces prosecution over the controversial Home Office leaks inquiry. Crown Prosecution Service officials are expected to announce their decision on Mr Green who was arrested in November in connection with a series of embarrassing leaks from the Home Office. It comes as a highly-critical report by MPs accuses senior civil servants of exaggerating the seriousness of the leaks which led to the six-month police probe into the MP. The Commons Home Affairs Committee said frustration at the string of leaks may have led officials to give Scotland Yard an "exaggerated impression" of the damage they were doing. It also demanded that in future the bar should be set higher for when police are called in to investigate an MP, with detectives notified only when there is an apparent breach of the Official Secrets Act. In its latest report, the committee said there was a "clear mismatch" between the contents of a Cabinet Office letter to the Metropolitan Police asking officers to investigate and the description of the leaks provided by Home Office Permanent Secretary Sir David Normington. Police were told in the letter that the Home Office leaks had caused "considerable damage to national security". The committee said this description was "unhelpful" and "hyperbolic" and raised the question of whether the police would still have investigated without it. In his evidence to the committee, Sir David said the letter reflected concerns about leaks from across Government. But the letter, which was written by Cabinet Office director of security and intelligence Chris Wright, referred only to leaks from the Home Office, the committee said. Mr Green said he found his arrest and nine-hour questioning "astonishing" as he was just doing his job. He "emphatically" denied any wrongdoing. The arrest of Mr Green and the searching of his Commons office caused a political storm at Westminster, with MPs from all parties expressing their outrage at the tactics of the police, who used anti-terror officers to carry out the raids. Much of the anger was directed towards Commons Speaker Michael Martin and the House of Commons authorities for allowing police into the Palace of Westminster. The report said officers, under the command of former Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, did not need a search warrant because they first sought consent.

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ITN | April 16, 2009

Tags:. .unhelpful. .emphatically. .wrongdoing. .mismatch. .hyperbolic