Standing Orders of the House of Commons

House of Commons

Standing Orders of the House of Commons - Public Business 1997- continued

Select Committees - continued

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Statutory Instruments (Joint Committee).     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 section 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 instruments.

    (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 a 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.

Select committees related to government departments     152. - (1) Select committees shall be appointed to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the principal government departments as set out in paragraph (2) of this order and associated public bodies.

    (2) The committees appointed under paragraph (1) of this order, the principal departments of government with which they are concerned, the maximum numbers of each committee and the quorum in each case shall be as follows:

Name of Committee
Principal government department concerned
Maximum members
Quorum

1 Agriculture
Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
11
3

2 Defence
Ministry of Defence
11
3

3 Education and Employment
Department for Education and Employment
13
4

4 Environment
Department of the Environment
11
3

5 Foreign Affairs
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
11
3

6 Health
Department of Health
11
3

7 Home Affairs
Home Office; policy, administration and expenditure of the Lord Chancellor's Department (including the work of staff provided for the administrative work of courts and tribunals, but excluding consideration of individual cases and appointments); and administration and expenditure of the Attorney General's Office, the Treasury Solicitor's Department, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Serious Fraud Office (but excluding individual cases and appointments and advice given within government by Law Officers)
11
3

8 National Heritage
Department of National Heritage
11
3

9 Northern Ireland Affairs
Northern Ireland Office; administration and expenditure of the Crown Solicitor's Office (but excluding individual cases and advice given by the Crown Solicitor); and other matters within the responsibilities of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (but excluding the expenditure, administration and policy of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Northern Ireland and the drafting of legislation by the Office of the Legislative Counsel)
13
4

10 Public Service
Office of Public Service (but excluding the drafting of bills by the Parliamentary Counsel Office)
11
3

11 Science and Technology
Office of Science and Technology
11
3

12 Scottish Affairs
Scottish Office; and administration and expenditure of the Lord Advocate's Departments, together with policy functions discharged by the Lord Advocate through the Scottish Courts Administration, but excluding consideration of individual cases and appointments, advice given within government by Scottish Law Officers, and the drafting of bills
11
3

13 Social Security
Department of Social Security
11
3

14 Trade and Industry
Department of Trade and Industry (but excluding the Office of Science and Technology)
11
3

15 Transport
Department of Transport
11
3

16 Treasury
Treasury, Board of Inland Revenue, Board of Customs & Excise
11
3

17 Welsh Affairs
Welsh Office
11
3

    (3) The Education and Employment Committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee, the Home Affairs Committee and the Treasury Committee shall each have the power to appoint one sub-committee.

    (4) Select committees appointed under this order 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, 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 report from time to time the minutes of evidence taken before sub-committees;

(d) to communicate to any other such committee and to the Committee of Public Accounts and to the Deregulation Committee their evidence and any other documents relating to matters of common interest; and

(e) to meet concurrently with any other such committee for the purposes of deliberating, taking evidence, or considering draft reports;

and the sub-committees appointed under this order 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, and shall have a quorum of three.

    (5) Unless the House otherwise orders, all Members nominated to a committee appointed under this order shall continue to be members of that committee for the remainder of the Parliament.

Public Petitions

Presentation of petitions     153. Every Member offering to present a petition to the House, not being a petition for a private bill, or relating to a private bill before the House, shall confine himself to a statement of the parties from whom it comes, the number of signatures attached to it, and the material allegations contained in it, and to reading the prayer of such petition.

Time and manner of presenting petitions     154. - (1) Every petition presented under Standing Order No. 153 (Presentation of petitions) not containing matter in breach of the privileges of this House, and which according to the rules or usual practice of this House can be received, shall be brought to the Table-

(a) on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, after a member of the government shall have signified his intention to move "That this House do now adjourn", for the purpose of bringing the sitting to a conclusion, and

(b) on Fridays, at the commencement of public business, provided that petitions remaining to be presented at ten o'clock on a Friday on which private Members' bills have precedence under Standing Order No. 14 (Arrangement of public business) shall stand over and may be brought to the Table after a member of the government shall have signified his intention to move "That this House do now adjourn", for the purpose of bringing the sitting to a conclusion.

    (2) Proceedings under paragraph (1)(a) and (1)(b) of this order shall not be interrupted at ten o'clock or at half past two o'clock respectively.

    (3) The Speaker shall not allow any debate, or any Member to speak upon, or in relation to, such petition; but it may be read by the Clerk if required.