|
Standing Order No. 149
(l) There shall be a select committee, called the
Committee on Standards and Privileges
(a) to consider specific matters relating to privileges
referred to it by the House;
(b) to oversee the work of the Parliamentary Commissioner
for Standards; to examine the arrangements proposed by the Commissioner
for the compilation, maintenance and accessibility of the Register
of Members' Interests and any other registers of interest established
by the House; to review from time to time the form and content
of those registers; and to consider any specific complaints made
in relation to the registering or declaring of interests referred
to it by the Commissioner; and
(c) to consider any matter relating to the conduct
of Members, including specific complaints in relation to alleged
breaches in any code of conduct to which the House has agreed
and which have been drawn to the committee's attention by the
Commissioner; and to recommend any modifications to such code
of conduct as may from time to time appear to be necessary.
(2) The committee shall consist of eleven Members,
of whom five shall be a quorum.
(3) Unless the House otherwise orders, each Member
nominated to the committee shall continue to he a member of it
for the remainder of the Parliament.
(4) The committee shall have power to appoint subcommittees
consisting of no more than seven Members, of whom three shall
be a quorum, and to refer to such subcommittees any of the
matters referred to the committee; and shall appoint one such
subcommittee to receive reports from the Commissioner relating
to investigations into specific complaints.
(5) The committee and any subcommittee shall
have power to send for persons, papers and records, to sit notwithstanding
any adjournment of the House, to adjourn from place to place,
to report from time to time and 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.
(6) The committee shall have power to order the attendance
of any Member before the committee or any subcommittee and
to require that specific documents or records in the possession
of a Member relating to its inquiries, or to the inquiries of
a subcommittee or of the Commissioner, be laid before the
committee or any subcommittee.
(7) The committee, or any subcommittee, shall
have power to refer to unreported evidence of former Committees
of Privileges or of former Select Committees on Members' Interests
and to any documents circulated to any such committee.
(8) The committee shall have power to refuse to allow
proceedings to which strangers are admitted to be broadcast.
(9) Mr Attorney General, the Lord Advocate, Mr Solicitor
General and Mr Solicitor General for Scotland, being Members of
the House, may attend the committee or any subcommittee,
may take part in deliberations, may receive committee or subcommittee
papers and may give such other assistance to the committee or
subcommittee as may be appropriate, but shall not vote or
make any motion or move any amendment or be counted in the quorum.
Votes and Proceedings for
Friday 26 January 1996
Ordered, That the Minutes of Evidence taken before
the Committee of Privileges on 1st November l995, in the last
session of Parliament, and not reported to the House and the related
Memorandum be laid upon the Table and referred to the Committee
on Standards and Privileges for examination by the Parliamentary
Commissioner for Standards.
| 
