What protections are there for constituent to MP communications?

Question

Various types of communication are considered protected under UK law:

• Doctor/Patient
• Client/Lawyer
• Confessor/Priest

It seems logical to me that constituents should be free to communicate with their MPs without fear of that communication becoming public or being handed to any third party, such as the police (with the exception of abusive communications).

Does such a provision exist in law, or is the confidentiality of MPs communications simply rely upon convention?

I'd also be interested to know if the law is different for MPs, MSPs and SMs.

Answer 1

What protections are there for constituent to MP communications?

Not much...

MPs are protected by privilege only when they are engaged in proceedings in Parliament, and have no special protection for anything they do outside those proceedings. It’s important to remember that not everything that happens in Parliament is a proceeding. This means that the protections of privilege don’t apply to some things you might expect to be covered. For example, they don’t apply to

• correspondence with constituents or ministers

... [Source UK Parliament]

Unless, I assume, the correspondence is directly related to Parliamentary proceedings.

Answer 2

Some are, some aren’t

australia

Parliamentary privilege covers actions in parliament or committee and actions outside those but directly related.

Examples of documents prepared for or incidental to the transacting of the business of a House or committee include:

• …

• letters from constituents which seek parliamentary action and which can be shown to have a direct connection with parliamentary proceedings – such as a request from a constituent to ask a question or raise a particular matter in debate (but see below).

Examples of documents or actions not covered include:

• general constituency correspondence, including with ministers, passing on concerns or issues raised by constituents – such as problems with government agencies or programs (but a qualified privilege may apply – see chapter 2 of Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, under “Provision of information to members”)

…