HOUSE OF COMMONS
EXTRACT FROM THE STANDING ORDERS
151. — (1) A select
committee shall be appointed to join with a committee appointed
by the Lords to consider —
(A) every instrument
which is laid before each House of Parliament and upon which proceedings
may be or might have been taken in either House of Parliament,
in pursuance of an Act of Parliament, being —
(a) a statutory
instrument, or a draft statutory instrument;
(b) a scheme, or an amendment of a scheme,
or a draft thereof, requiring approval by statutory instrument;
(c) any other instrument (whether or not
in draft), where the proceedings in pursuance of an Act of Parliament
are proceedings by way of an affirmative resolution; or
(d) an order subject to special parliamentary
procedure;
but excluding any Order in Council or draft Order
in Council made or proposed to be made under paragraph 1 of Schedule
1 to the Northern Ireland Act 1974 and any draft order proposed
to be made under section 1 of the Deregulation and Contracting
Out Act 1994;
(B) every general statutory instrument
not within the foregoing classes, and not required to be laid
before or to be subject to proceedings in this House only, but
not including measures under the Church of England Assembly (Powers)
Act 1919 and instruments made under such measures;
with a view to determining whether the special attention
of the House should be drawn to it on any of the following grounds:
(i) that it imposes
a charge on the public revenues or contains 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 prescribes the
amount of any such charge or payment;
(ii) that it is made in pursuance of any
enactment containing specific provisions excluding it from challenge
in the courts, either at all times or after the expiration of
a specific period;
(iii) that it purports to have retrospective
effect where the parent statute confers no express authority so
to provide;
(iv) that there appears to have been unjustifiable
delay in the publication or in the laying of it before Parliament;
(v) that there appears to have been unjustifiable
delay in sending a notification under the proviso to subsection
4(1) of the Statutory Instruments Act 1946, where an instrument
has come into operation before it has been laid before Parliament;
(vi) that there appears to be a doubt whether
it is intra vires or that it appears to make some unusual
or unexpected use of the powers conferred by the statute under
which it is made;
(vii) that for any special reason its form
or purport calls for elucidation;
(viii) that its drafting appears to be defective;
or on any other ground which does not impinge on
its merits or on the policy behind it; and to report its decision
with the reasons thereof in any particular case.
(2) The quorum of the committee shall be two.
(3) The committee shall have power to appoint
one or more sub-committees severally to join with any sub-committee
or sub-committees appointed by the committee appointed by the
Lords; and to refer to such sub-committee or sub-committees any
of the matters referred to the committee.
(4) The committee and any sub-committee appointed
by it shall have the assistance of the Counsel to the Speaker
and, if their Lordships think fit, of the Counsel to the Lord
Chairman of Committees.
(5) The committee shall have power to sit notwithstanding
any adjournment of the House and to report from time to time,
and any sub-committee appointed by it shall have power to sit
notwithstanding any adjournment of the House.
(6) The committee and any sub-committee appointed
by it shall have power to require any government department concerned
to submit a memorandum explaining any instrument which may be
under its consideration or to depute a representative to appear
before it as a witness for the purpose of explaining any such
instrument.
(7) The committee and any sub-committee appointed
by it shall have power to take evidence, written or oral, from
Her Majesty's Stationery Office, relating to the printing and
publication of any instrument.
(8) The committee shall have power to report to the
House from time to time any memorandum submitted to it or other
evidence taken before it or any sub-committee appointed by it
from any government department in explanation of any instrument.
(9) It shall be an instruction to the committee that
before reporting that the special attention of the House be drawn
to any instrument the committee do afford to any government department
concerned therewith an opportunity of furnishing orally or in
writing to it or to any sub-committee appointed by it such explanations
as the department think fit.
(10) It shall be an instruction to the committee
that it shall consider any instrument which is directed by Act
of Parliament to be laid before and to be subject to proceedings
in this House only, being —
(a) a statutory instrument,
or draft of a statutory instrument;
(b) a scheme, or an amendment to a scheme, or
a draft thereof, requiring approval by statutory instrument; or
(c) any other instrument (whether or not in draft),
where the proceedings in pursuance of an Act of Parliament are
proceedings by way of an affirmative resolution;
and that it have power to draw such instruments to
the special attention of the House on any of the grounds on which
the Joint Committee is empowered so to draw the special attention
of the House; and that in considering any such instrument the
committee do not join with the committee appointed by the Lords.
(11) 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.
The Membership of the Committee during Session 1998-99
was as follows:
Mr David Tredinnick (Chairman)
Mr Andrew F Bennett
Mr Harold Best added 25.2.99
Mr Colin Burgon discharged 25.2.99
Mr Dominic Grieve |
Mr Ivan Henderson added 25.2.99
Ms Rosemary McKenna discharged 25.2.99
Ms Diana Organ discharged 25.2.99
Mr William Ross
Mr Brian White added 25.2.99 |
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