Is There Anything to Prevent Rebekah Brooks From Staying Silent This Afternoon?

Rebekah Brooks was arrested on Sunday on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications, and of corrupting police officers. She is due to appear before the Commons culture, media and sport select committee on Tuesday afternoon. Many observers are expecting the former chief executive of News International to stay quiet when faced with questions from MP's but legally does Ms Brooks have to answer any questions.

There is no doubt that Rebekah Brooks will argue that the Commons media committee should not ask her questions over negotiations that she was involved in phone hacking or corruption because it would create a "substantial risk that the course of justice will be seriously impeded or prejudiced." Rebekah Brooks of course has the right to a fair trial and MP's have to respect the on-going legal case against her. MP's are expected, this afternoon, to respect the legal process or their judgement will come under severe question.

The second way Rebekah Brooks may attempt to avoid questions from MP's is that she will claim she can't answer questions because of the on-going confidentially agreement between herself and News International after her resignation on Friday. However, the Guardian reports that Rebekah Brooks will have to disclose any information she has. Tom Flanagan, head of employment at law firm Irwin Mitchell said: "If a court of competent jurisdiction requires you to disclose information, then you must disclose it," he said yesterday. "The compromise agreement can't override that. A select committee inquiry would have this power."

In further damaging news to Rebekah Brooks, police are investigating a laptop bag that was dumped in a car park owned by Mr Brooks. The bag was dumped in a car park near the Brooks' home on Monday. It is unclear at this stage how the bag got there.

It is understood that the bag was handed into security at around 3pm and then Ms Brooks' husband arrived shortly after, attempting to reclaim it. Police are now examining CCTV footage of the car park but it is not expected to have anything to do with the Rebekah Brooks phone hacking scandal.