STANDING COMMITTEES

Standing Committees in the House of Commons have a number of different functions.

1.	Standing Committees lettered A, B, C, etc, are constituted as often as necessary to consider Public Bills in detail. Their membership is announced after a Bill has been allocated to them, and the Committees are constituted afresh for each new Bill. The 1st and 2nd Scottish Standing Committees act similarly for Bills relating solely to Scotland. Special Standing Committees (SSC) or Special Scottish Standing Committees (SSSC) may be established to consider, and take evidence upon, Bills. For further details, see Factsheet 43 available from the Public Information Office.
2.	Reports of debates in Standing Committees are printed in the Official Report of Standing Committee A (B, C etc) for each sitting. These are published by, and available from, and, unless the Committee sits late, are generally available the day after the sitting.
3.	The Scottish Grand, Welsh Grand and Northern Ireland Committees exist largely to debate matters remitted to them by the House. They are constituted afresh for each topic. The Scottish and Welsh Grand Committees also debate the principle of Bills relating to Scotland and Wales if the Bills are referred to them under a motion by a Minister. Except for formal purposes this constitutes the Second Reading stage of such a Bill. The Scottish Grand Committee also (at designated sittings) has a question time, debates on the motion for the adjournment and adjournment debates. For further information see Factsheet 65 available from the Public Information Office.
4.	Delegated Legislation Standing Committees (formerly known as SI Committees) are constituted to deal with particular items of secondary legislation referred to them by the House. Their composition is not noted in this Bulletin. Any Member may attend and speak.
5.	The European Standing Committees (ESC) lettered A and B are constituted for the duration of a Session and consider matters referred to them by the House. Their composition appears in No 2 (p14), amendments No 3 (p12), No 5 (p15). Chairmen are appointed for consideration of individual documents. Any Member may attend and speak. For further details see Factsheet 56 available from the Public Information Office. Committees A and B deal with matters within the responsibilities of different Departments. The list is as follows: ESC A: Agriculture, Fisheries and Food; Transport; Environment; Forestry Commission (and analogous responsibilities of Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland Offices): ESC B: Other Departments

Current Standing Committees, Details of Membership

Bill	Committee	Bulletin issue and page
		(amendments/additions)
Merchant Shipping and Maritime Security [HL]	A	No 14 (p21), this issue
Police [HL]	F	No 15 (p20)
Police (Insurance of Voluntary Assistants)	B	This issue
Holocaust Denial	C	This issue
Waste Prevention	D	This issue
Dangerous Dogs (Amendment) [HL]	E	This issue

COMMITTEES APPOINTED

SC B: Police (Insurance of Voluntary Assistants)

Sir James Hill (Chairman)

Mr Peter Atkinson	Mr Alex Carlile	Sir Sydney Chapman
Mr David Congdon	Mr Michael Fabricant	Mr Neil Gerrard
Mr David Hinchliffe	Margaret Hodge	Mr Alan Howarth
Jane Kennedy	Mr Piara S. Khabra	Mr Peter Luff
Mr David Maclean	Mr Alun Michael	Dr Robert Spink
Sir Donald Thompson	Mr Paddy Tipping	Mr John Whittingdale

SC C: Holocaust Denial

Sir James Molyneaux (Chairman)

Mr Jacques Arnold	Mr Vivian Bendall	Mr Hartley Booth
Mr Ian Davidson	Mrs Gwyneth Dunwoody	Mr Hugh Dykes
Mr Paul Flynn	Mr Mike Gapes	Mr Norman Hogg
Mr Robert G. Hughes	Mr David Hunt	Mr John Hutton
Mr Greville Janner	Mr Toby Jessel	Mr Timothy Kirkhope
Mr John Marshall	Mr Ian Pearson	Reverend Martin Smyth

SC D: Waste Prevention

Mrs Gwyneth Dunwoody (Chairman)

Mr John Austin-Walker	Mr Matthew Banks	Mr James Clappison
Mr Harry Cohen	Mr Cynog Dafis	Mr Nirj Deva
Mr Jim Dowd	Mr Nigel Evans	Mr Nick Hawkins
Mr David Hinchliffe	Mr John Hutton	Helen Jackson
Joan Ruddock	Mr Barry Sherman	Dr Robert Spink
Sir Teddy Taylor	Sir Donald Thompson	Mr Gary Waller

SC E: Dangerous Dogs (Amendment) [HL]

Mr Norman Hogg (Chairman)

Mr Jacques Arnold	Mr Tony Banks	Sir Graham Bright
Sir Sydney Chapman	Ann Clwyd	Mr Harry Cohen
Mr Robin Corbett	Mr Roger Gale	Mr Terry Lewis
Diana Maddock	Mr Alan Meale	Mr David Mellor
Mr Chris Mullin	Mrs Elizabeth Peacock	Mr Tom Sackville
Sir Colin Shepherd	Mr Stephen Timms	Dr Ian Twinn

CHAIRMAN APPOINTED

None

CHANGE OF MEMBERSHIP

SC E: Dangerous Dogs (Amendment) Mr Stephen Timms discharged, Mr Elliot Morley appointed

STANDING COMMITTEES: MEETINGS 3 - 7 MARCH 1997

Standing Committees on BILLS and DELEGATED LEGISLATION

TUESDAY 4 MARCH

(the scheduled meeting of SC F on the Police Bill did not take place)

WEDNESDAY 5 MARCH

ESC B: Sir James Hill (Chairman)

EC Documents OJ C340 in REspect of Court of Auditors' Report 1995, OJ C395 in Respect of Court of Auditors' Statement of Assurance for 1995 and OJ C395 in Respect of Court of Auditors' Statement of Assurance for 1995: European Development Fund

STANDING COMMITTEES:
FORTHCOMING MEETINGS 10 - 14 MARCH 1997

Standing Committees on BILLS and DELEGATED LEGISLATION

TUESDAY 11 MARCH

SC F:	Police [HL] 10.30 am and 4.30 pm, Room 9
4th DLSC:	Special Grant Report (No 26) (HC 326) 10.30 am, Room 10
1st DLSC:	Draft Course for Drink-Drive Offenders (Experimental Period) Order 1997, 10.30 am, Room 11
3rd DLSC:	Draft Property (Northern Ireland) Order 1997, 4.30 pm, Room 12

WEDNESDAY 12 MARCH

SC B:	Police (Insurance of Voluntary Assistants) [HL], 10.30 am, Room 9
SC C:	Holocaust Denial, 10.30 am, Room 10
SC D:	Waste Prevention, 10.30 am, Room 11
SC E:	Dangerous Dogs (Amendment) [HL], 10.30 am, Room 12
5th DLSC:	Special Grant Report (No 25) (Metropolitan Railway Passenger Services Grant for 1997-98) (HC 316) and Special Grant Report (Scotland) on Grant in aid of expenditure on rail services in the Strathclyde Passenger Transport Area (HC 297), 4.30 pm, Room 11
6th DLSC:	Draft Social Security (Incapacity for Work and Severe Disablement Allowance) Amendment Regulations 1997, 4.30 pm, Room 12
7th DLSC:	Draft Data Protection (Regulation of Financial Services etc) (Subject Access Exemption) (Amendment) Order 1997, 4.30 pm, Room 10

THURSDAY 13 MARCH

SC F:

Police [HL]2, 10.30 am and 4.30 pm, Room 10

TUESDAY 11 MARCH

Sir James Molyneaux (Chairman)

10.30 am, Room 14

Debate - to consider further the Public Expenditure Plans for Northern Ireland for 1997-8 - 1999-2000

1 A sittings motion may provide for a meeting on Thursday at 10.30 am

2 Unless Committee Stage is concluded previously