Investigation launched into security of parliament data system

Police may have accessed shared drive during raid on MP's Commons office

MPs are worried that their data has been compromised

Commons Speaker Michael Martin is looking into the security of files held in the parliamentary video and data system "as a matter of urgency" after MPs expressed alarm that the confidentiality of their data may have been compromised during the police search of Tory shadow immigration minister Damian Green's Commons office.

Martin disclosed the investigation at the end of a debate on the police raid, when the government defeated a motion setting up an immediate investigation by a special committee by just four votes.

"Many MPs keep data on the server. I keep on it names and addresses and details of issues about which people contact me," said Liberal Democrat MP Richard Younger-Ross.

He asked Martin: "What assurance can MPs give their constituents that, if the police have accessed that server, details of all our constituents have not been given to them?"

During the debate, Tory business manager Theresa May said that Commons leader Harriet Harman failed to confirm that police had not had access to the system's shared drive and servers and warned: "If they had, they would have had the ability to access every members' correspondence and emails."

May invited Harman to intervene and correct her, warning that failure to respond would mean she did not know or could not give the assurance. Harman remained silent.

Earlier Harman indicated that a warrant would be required in future before a police raid, and suggested that consideration be given to requiring it to be signed by a High Court judge rather than a magistrate.

MPs' concerns stem from the use of the system to store data as well as transmit it between MPs' offices and recipients outside, compromising its use as a route for confidential information.