To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission whether the staff who will be given access to documentation submitted by hon. Members to the Parliamentary authorities to undertake work to redact personal information from information to be published in autumn 2008 will be permanent or temporary staff; what security checks will have been carried out on those staff; and if he will make a statement. (215446)

Quality assurance and editing will be undertaken by security-cleared permanent staff as will any further revisions after hon. Members have had an opportunity to check their information. However, the House does not itself have the capacity to carry out all the work required. It is therefore planned that the scanning of some 1.3 million documents and first stage redaction to remove details such as addresses, telephone numbers, banking details and account numbers will be undertaken under secure conditions by a contractor familiar with providing services to Government and Parliament whose staff have been security cleared. Arrangements for providing additional staff required by the contractor for this project will be agreed between the contractor and the House authorities. The Parliamentary Security Co-ordinator and the Serjeant at Arms have been consulted, and their approval of the arrangements will be sought before the work goes ahead. Staff of the House will be involved in monitoring the whole process.