Pensions minister Guy Opperman has admitted his department breached protocol due to an "administrative error" when it released a document to the public the same day it was sent to MPs.
On 12 February, the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) sent its response to the Work & Pensions select committee report on pension freedoms, which was published in December, regarding pension scams.
The response was also published on the DWP's website on the same day.
However, according to Labour MP Frank Field, chairman of the Work & Pensions select committee, this did not follow protocol.
In a letter to Mr Opperman, Mr Field said a government response usually takes the form of either a Command Paper - the timing of whose publication is controlled by the government - or a memorandum submitted to the committee, giving it control of publication.
If the former is chosen, the response must in all circumstances be made first to Parliament, either to the House itself or to the committee, according to Civil Service guidance.
Mr Field said: "Not only was the committee not informed of the department's intention to publish, but the response was published on the same day the committee received it (a recess Monday), allowing no time for due consideration before it became publicly available.
"This strikes me as, at the least, an inappropriate and discourteous way to handle the response."
Mr Field is hoping that "this has arisen as a result of administrative error rather than as an intentional bypass of usual and prescribed practice", and he said he would like Mr Opperman's "assurance that it will not happen again," he added in the letter.
In his response, Mr Opperman presented his "unreserved and sincere apologies on this matter".
He said: "You are correct that this was an administrative error, and I can assure you that it was not my, or indeed the department's, intention to be discourteous or disrespectful towards the Work & Pensions select committee."
The pensions minister argued that he is taking "this breach of parliamentary protocol very seriously," and that it was the "result of a genuine misunderstanding between DWP officials".
He explained that papers were sent to the committee just after 12pm on Monday, and the response was then published after 5pm on the government's website.
He said: "Officials believed that they were taking the right approach in doing so. However, I appreciate that this should never have been published by the department in this way in the first place.
"I accept that this did not allow sufficient time for members of the committee to consider the response before it was made publicly available, and that it was a serious error not to inform the committee of the department's plans to publish the response.
"I can assure you that we have put measures in place to ensure that this will not happen again."
maria.espadinha@ft.com
