Government ministers granted 'core participant' status |

Friday 4th May 2012 | 15:10

Government ministers granted 'core participant' status

Lord Leveson has granted ‘core participant’ status to eight frontbench government ministers, including the Prime Minister and the Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

The status allows the ministers to see documents and witness statements in advance of them becoming public. Along with the David Cameron and Mr Hunt, the successful applicants were Nick Clegg, George Osborne, Theresa May, Vince Cable, Michael Gove and Ken Clarke.

The eight participants will now have advanced access to documents and statements from other witnesses, including former News of the World editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, who both appear before Leveson next week.

Core participant status also allows ministers to make opening and closing statements to the inquiry, and to request questions in order to cross examine other witnesses. However, ministers declined to ask for those rights in the application.

Lord Leveson revealed that the adoption of core participant status would not allow them to alter their own witness statements to the inquiry, as all but one of the ministers had already submitted their evidence, with the final statement due this afternoon.

"Core participant status is not intended to give an advantage to core participants," he said.

"It is also not intended to represent a trap for unsighted witnesses who are not core participants."

Total disregard

Lord Leveson also rebuked a politician, thought to be Labour MP Chris Bryant, for a "total disregard" of the terms of confidentiality.

Mr Bryant, a core participant with advance access to evidence, suggested late last month that Mr Cameron may have misled Parliament over meetings with Rupert Murdoch.

Raising a point of order in the House of Commons, the Rhondda MP said: "Rupert Murdoch - this has been published by the Leveson Inquiry - made it clear that there were meetings with the Prime Minister on May 18, May 25, July 21, another on July 21, and July 22."

In fact no such information had been released by the inquiry at that time.

"It has happened that a core participant, who is a politician, has used material from the disclosed evidence, which was later corrected, publically to challenge the Prime Minister," Lord Leveson said.

"An apology has been received for what was, in that a case, a total disregard for the terms of a confidentiality agreement."