Andrew Stephenson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the House of Commons Commission

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Stephenson on 2016-07-11.

To ask the Rt. hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington representing the House of Commons Commission, what recent assessment the Commission has made of the security arrangements for screening mail received by hon. Members of each House of Parliament.

Tom Brake

A procurement process for a new contract for screening mail received by hon. Members is currently underway. A full review of the security arrangements and contract specification forms part of that process. This review is based on advice from the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) as well as on a national standard specification for mail screening (PAS 97:2015).

Following an incident, the Parliamentary Security Department has recently revised and reissued guidance to Members and staff on what to do following receipt of a suspicious letter or package.

We do not comment in public on details of security arrangements. The Deputy Director of Security (Delivery) would be happy to discuss these arrangements in more detail with the hon. Member.