PART 5

Meetings and proceedings

Publication of background papers
21
1
If and so long as copies of the whole or part of a report for a CJC meeting are required by regulation 18(1) or 20(1) to be published electronically—
a
those copies must each include a copy of a list, compiled by a proper officer, of the background papers for the report or the part of the report, and
b
each of the documents included in that list must be published electronically, but if in the opinion of a proper officer it is not reasonably practicable to publish a document included in the list electronically, the corporate joint committee must make arrangements to send a copy on request to any member of the public as soon as is reasonably practicable after a copy is requested.
2
Where copies of documents included in the list are published under paragraph (1)(b) they must remain accessible electronically to members of the public until the expiration of the period of six years beginning with the date of the meeting.
3
Where arrangements are made to send copies of documents included in the list to members of the public on request under paragraph (1)(b), those arrangements must remain in place until the expiration of that period of six years.
4
Nothing in this regulation requires any document which discloses exempt information to be included in the list referred to in paragraph (1).
5
Notwithstanding the generality of regulation 16(4), nothing in this regulation requires or authorises the inclusion in the list of any document which, if published electronically or sent to a member of the public, would disclose confidential information in breach of the obligation of confidence.
6
In paragraph (5), “confidential information” has the same meaning as in regulation 16(5)(a) and the reference to the obligation of confidence is to be construed accordingly.
7
For the purposes of this regulation the background papers for a report are those documents relating to the subject matter of the report which—
a
disclose any facts or matters on which, in the opinion of a proper officer, the report or an important part of the report is based, and
b
have, in the officer’s opinion, been relied on to a material extent in preparing the report,
but do not include any published works.