The Deregulation Committee is appointed under
Standing Order No. 141, viz:
Deregulation Committee
141.—(1) There shall be a select committee, called the Deregulation
Committee, to examine every document containing proposals laid
before the House under section 3, and every draft order proposed
to be made under section 1, of the Deregulation and Contracting
Out Act 1994.
(2) The committee shall report to the House, in relation to every
document containing proposals laid before the House under the
said section 3, either—
(a) that a draft order in the same terms
as the proposals should be laid before the House; or
(b) that the proposals should be amended before a draft order
is laid before the House; or
(c) that the order-making power should not be used in respect
of the proposals.
(3) The committee shall report to the House, in relation to every
draft order laid before the House under the said section 1, its
recommendation whether the draft order should be approved.
(4) The committee may report to the House on any matter arising
from consideration of the said proposals or draft orders.
(5)(A) In its consideration of proposals the committee shall consider
in each case whether the proposals —
(a) appear to make an inappropriate use
of delegated legislation;
(b) remove or reduce a burden or the authorisation or requirement
of a burden;
(c) continue any necessary protection;
(d) have been the subject of, and take appropriate account of,
adequate consultation;
(e) impose a charge on the public revenues or contain provisions
requiring payments to be made to the Exchequer or any government
department or to any local or public authority in consideration
of any licence or consent or of any services to be rendered, or
prescribe the amount of any such charge or payment;
(f) purport to have retrospective effect;
(g) give rise to doubts whether they are intra vires;
(h) require elucidation or appear to be defectively drafted;
(i) appear to be incompatible with any obligation resulting from
membership of the European Union.
(B) In its consideration of draft orders, the committee shall
consider in each case all the matters set out in sub-paragraph
(A) above and the extent to which the Minister concerned has had
regard to any resolution or report of the committee or to any
other representations
made during the period for parliamentary consideration.
(6) The committee shall consist of eighteen Members.
(8) Unless the House otherwise orders, each Member nominated to
the committee shall continue to be a member of it for the remainder
of the Parliament.
(9) The committee shall have power -
(a) to send for persons, papers and records,
to sit notwithstanding any adjournment of the House, to adjourn
from place to place within the United Kingdom, and to report from
time to time;
(b) to appoint specialist advisers either to supply information
which is not readily available or to elucidate matters of complexity
within the committee's order of reference;
(c) to appoint a sub-committee, of which the quorum shall be two,
which shall have power to send for persons, papers and records,
to sit notwithstanding any adjournment of the House, and to adjourn
from place to place within the United Kingdom;
(d) to communicate its evidence and any other documents relating
to matters of common interest to any committee appointed by this
House and to any committee appointed by the Lords to examine deregulation
proposals and draft orders.
(10) The committee and the sub-committee shall have leave to meet
concurrently with any select committee appointed by the Lords
to examine deregulation proposals and draft orders and any sub-committee
thereof.
(11) The committee and the sub-committee shall have the assistance
of the Counsel to the Speaker and, if their Lordships think fit,
the Counsel to the Lord Chairman of Committees.
(12) The committee and the sub-committee shall have power to invite
Members of the House who are not members of the committee to attend
meetings at which witnesses are being examined and such Members
may, at the discretion of the chairman, ask questions of those
witnesses; but no Member not being of the committee shall otherwise
take part in the proceedings of the committee or sub-committee,
or be counted in the quorum.
(13) It shall be an instruction to the committee that before reporting
either —
(a) that any proposal should be amended
before a draft order is laid before the House, or
(b) that the order-making power should not be used in respect
of any proposal, or
(c) that any draft order should not be approved,
it shall afford to any government department concerned an opportunity
of furnishing orally or in writing to it or to the sub-committee
appointed by it such explanations as the department think fit.
(14) It shall be an instruction to the committee that it report
on every draft order not more than fifteen sitting days after
the draft order was laid before the House, indicating in the case
of draft orders which it recommends should be approved whether
its recommendation was agreed without a division.
The following were nominated as members of the Deregulation Committee
on 29 July 1997:
| Mr David Chaytor | Mr Gordon Marsden
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| Mr Iain Coleman | Mr Piers Merchant
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| Mr John Cryer | Mr Denis Murphy
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| Mr Brian Cotter | Mr Peter L. Pike
|
| Mr Stephen Hesford | Mr William Ross
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| Mr Edward Leigh | Geraldine Smith
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| Mr Ivan Lewis | Mr Richard Spring
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| Mr David Lock | Mr Anthony Steen
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| Mr Stephen McCabe | Mr Ian Stewart
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21 October 1997: Mr Piers Merchant resigned.
4 December 1997: Mr Edward Leigh and Mr Richard Spring
discharged; Mrs Jacqui Lait and Mr John Randall appointed.
23 February 1998: Mr Oliver Letwin appointed.
20 April 1998: Mr David Lock discharged; Mr Andy King appointed.
19 June 1998: Mr Stephen Hesford discharged; Dr Doug Naysmith
appointed.
Mr Peter L. Pike was elected Chairman, 24 November 1997.
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