Parliament's Investigative Powers Put to the Test by a Leak

The Parliamentary Power of Inquiry Put to the Test by Leaks. The Hospita Inquiry Committee and a Comparison of Cantonal, Federal, European, US and Other Inquiry Commissions. The report of the Ticino parliamentary inquiry committee on the Hospita case was signed on 13 October 2026 and is due for publication on 11 November, yet its main findings were reported by the press at the end of October. addressing the merits of the inquiry, this appendix argues that the leak reflects a structural flaw rather than an accident. The Ticino model combines a committee made up solely of legislators, a fully confidential investigation and a final phase in which the draft circulates to the persons concerned, while the law imposes secrecy only on committee members. A comparison with the federal parliamentary inquiry committee, Geneva, Zurich, Germany, Austria, Italy, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the European Parliament, the United States, Israel, Australia and Brazil shows three ways of reducing the risk: public hearings, statutory secrecy binding all participants, and the involvement of an independent or judicial figure. A 2016 ruling of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court on a leaked draft of a Zurich inquiry report confirms that the confidentiality of such work is a protected interest. The appendix proposes extending secrecy to all recipients of the draft, formal warning letters, statutory deadlines, a procedural guarantor and an external forum for prosecuting breaches.

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