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Parliament Act 2025

Parliamentary privilege - Article 9 of Bill of Rights 1688 - Prohibited impeaching or questioning of proceedings in Parliament

19: Use of confidential documents and oral evidence

You could also call this:

"Keeping Secrets Safe in Court"

Illustration for Parliament Act 2025

You cannot use secret documents or things people said in private in a court. A court cannot make someone show a secret document or use it as evidence. If the people who got the secret information make it public, then a court can use it. You get secret information when someone tells you something in private or gives you secret evidence. If a court wants to use this information, the people who got it must have already made it public. You can find more information about this by looking at the law from 1986. A court can use secret information if the House of Representatives or a committee has already shared it with the public. This means the court can use the information without questioning what the House of Representatives or committee did. The House of Representatives or committee must have either shared the information themselves or given permission for it to be shared.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS804147.

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Topics:
Crime and justice > Courts and legal help
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18: Evidence, questions, and statements, etc, about proceedings in Parliament, or

"What happens in Parliament can't be used in court"

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20: Use of evidence, etc, for interpreting legislation, or

"Using documents to help understand what a law means"

Part 2Parliamentary privilege
Article 9 of Bill of Rights 1688: Prohibited impeaching or questioning of proceedings in Parliament

19Use of confidential documents and oral evidence

  1. This section applies to the use, in a court or tribunal, of documents and oral evidence that have been received by the House of Representatives or a committee in confidence.

  2. A court or tribunal must not—

  3. require the document to be produced; or
    1. admit the document into evidence; or
      1. admit evidence concerning the document.

        1. A court or tribunal must not—

        2. admit evidence concerning the oral evidence; or
          1. require a document recording or reporting the oral evidence to be produced; or
            1. admit the document into evidence.

              1. However, a court or tribunal may do anything referred to in subsection (2) or (3) in relation to a document or oral evidence received by the House of Representatives or a committee (without impeaching or questioning the proceedings in Parliament) if the House of Representatives or committee has—

              2. communicated the document or oral evidence to the public; or
                1. authorised its communication to the public.

                  1. For the purposes of this section, a document or oral evidence is received by the House of Representatives or a committee in confidence if it is received (as advice, evidence, or anything else)—

                  2. in private; or
                    1. as secret evidence.

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