APPENDIX 30
Letter from Mr Jimmy Hood, MP, Chairman
of the European Scrutiny Committee to the Chairman of the Procedure
Committee
Thank you for your letter asking for my assessment
of the extent of possible co-operation between the European Scrutiny
Committee and the devolved legislatures.
I am sure that the Committee would be very willing
to co-operate with the devolved legislatures in their scrutiny
of European legislation, and I have been giving some thought to
the practical assistance that we could give.
I am well aware that a comprehensive system
of scrutinising individual pieces of European legislation, such
as the House of Commons system, is very costly in time and resources.
To enable us to consider some 900 documents a year and report
on them in time to influence UK Ministers before decisions are
taken in Council, this Committee has the largest staff of any
Select Committee in the House. It would clearly be very difficult
for the devolved assemblies to commit enough resources to replicate
this system. I assume, therefore, that they will wish to be able
to identify quickly the documents that are of major interest to
them so that they can concentrate on these.
When we consider European documents, a number
of sources of information are available to us: as well as the
document itself, we have an Explanatory Memorandum (EM) from the
lead UK Department, a written brief from the Committee staff and
the oral advice from the staff at the meeting. It would clearly
be helpful for the devolved legislatures to receive copies of
the EMs at the same time that they are provided to Parliament;
together with any EMs outlining local interests which the devolved
administrations may produce. However, it would be difficult to
conduct a rapid sift on the basis of these documents alone.
As described in the Memorandum by the Clerk
of the House, the Committee staff provide four different types
of written briefing. We find this briefing invaluable in deciding
whether or not a document is of legal or political importance,
and I think that access to this material would probably by the
most useful source of information which we could provide to the
devolved legislatures.
However, in accordance with the practice of
Select Committees, and so that our staff be entirely frank with
us, the briefs are prepared for us on an "in confidence"
basis. Before sharing the briefing material, we would need to
be assured that it would be protected. This is especially important
in view of the formal requirements for public access to some deliberative
functions of the devolved legislatures.
On the practicalities of sharing material, it
may be possible to provide remote access to the briefing materials
as they are produced. In addition, the new European Scrutiny Database
is a major development in our work, and remote access to our part
of the system—as well as to the more generally available
part under the control of the House of Commons Library—might
also be provided. I would be happy to give further suggestions
on how the briefing material might be shared if the Procedure
Committee wished.
I would welcome the opportunity to take into
account the conclusions of the devolved legislatures when reporting
on documents to this House. Obviously, the feasibility of this
will depend on the speed of response by the devolved legislatures:
the primary duty of this Committee must be to report to the House
in time for any debate to be held, and before decisions are taken
in the Council of Ministers. This may sometimes mean that we cannot
postpone final consideration of a document until we have received
an indication of the views of the devolved assemblies. However,
I am sure that my Committee will be as flexible as possible. I
very much hope that it will be possible to develop a synergy between
Westminster and devolved legislatures through co-operation of
this type.
14 April 1999
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