STANDING ORDERS OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS PUBLIC BUSINESS 2001

Standing Orders of the House of Commons - Public Business 2001 - continued	House of Commons

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Strangers (select committees).	125. - (1) A select committee shall have power, if it so orders, to admit strangers during the examination of witnesses.
	(2) A sub-committee appointed by such a select committee shall have a like power except as that committee otherwise orders.
Withdrawal of Members from meetings of select committees.	126. - If any select committee, or sub-committee thereof, considers that the presence at a meeting, or part of a meeting, of that committee to which the public are not admitted of any specified Member of the House not nominated to that committee would obstruct the business of the committee, it shall have power to direct such Member to withdraw forthwith; and the Serjeant at Arms shall act on such instructions as he may receive from the chairman of the committee in pursuance of this order.
Withdrawal of documents before select committee.	127. No document received by the clerk of a select committee shall be withdrawn or altered without the knowledge and approval of the committee.
Entry on minutes of proceedings of select committee.	128. The names of the Members present at each sitting of a select committee and, if a division takes place, the name of the proposer of the motion or amendment, the question put, and the respective votes thereupon of the Members present shall be entered on the minutes of the proceedings of the committee.
Minutes of proceedings to be laid on the Table.	129. The minutes of the proceedings of a select committee shall be laid on the Table of the House during the session to which they relate, unless the committee proposes to bring them up with a report in a following session of the same Parliament.
Entry on minutes of evidence of select committee.	130. The names of Members present at each sitting of a select committee shall be entered on the minutes of evidence, if any.
Entry of questions asked.	131. To every question or series of questions asked of a witness under examination in the proceedings of a select committee, and at the beginning of each page of the minutes of evidence, there shall be prefixed the name of the inquiring Member.
Administration of oath in select committee.	132. Any oath taken or affirmation made by any witness before a select committee may be administered by the chairman, or by the clerk attending such committee.
Power to report opinion and observations.	133. Every select committee shall have leave to report to the House its opinion and observations upon any matters referred to it for its consideration, together with the minutes of the evidence taken before it, and also to make a special report of any matters which it may think fit to bring to the notice of the House.
Select committees (reports).	134. All select committees shall have power to authorise the Clerk of the House to supply copies of their reports to officers of government departments, to such witnesses who have given evidence to committees or to their sub-committees as those committees consider appropriate, to lobby journalists, and to such other press representatives as the committee thinks fit, after those reports have been laid upon the Table but not more than forty-eight hours before the intended time of publication of such reports.
Witnesses and evidence (select committees).	135. - (1) All select committees having power to send for persons, papers and records shall have power to publish the names of persons who have appeared as witnesses before them, and to authorise the publication by the witnesses concerned or otherwise of memoranda of evidence submitted by them.
	(2) The Speaker shall have power to authorise such publication in the case of any such select committee which is no longer in existence.
Publication of evidence (select committees).	136. When evidence has been given before a select committee meeting in public, no complaint of privilege will be entertained on the ground that it has been published before having been reported to the House.
Select committees (adjournment of the House).	137. Whenever the House stands adjourned for more than two days, and any select committee having power to sit notwithstanding any adjournment of the House shall have agreed to a report, or shall have resolved that its minutes of proceedings should be printed or that the minutes of evidence taken before it or before any sub-committee appointed by it or any papers laid before it should be reported to the House and printed, it shall have power to direct the printing of such report, minutes or papers, and such printing shall be under the authority of the House; and any such reports, minutes or papers shall be deemed to have been reported to the House and shall be laid upon the Table when the House next sits.
Members (attendance at Lords select committees).	138. Any Member requested by a committee appointed by the Lords to attend as a witness before it or before any sub-committee appointed by it shall have the leave of this House so to attend, if the Member think fit.
Select Committee on Broadcasting.	139. - (1) There shall be a select committee with power to give directions and to perform other duties, relating to the broadcasting of proceedings of the House and matters ancillary thereto.
	(2) The committee shall consist of eleven Members, and the quorum shall be three.
	(3) The committee shall have powers-
	(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 communicate to any committee appointed under Standing Order No. 142 (Domestic Committees), or to the Finance and Services Committee appointed under Standing Order No. 144, or to the House of Commons Commission, its evidence and any other documents relating to matters of common interest; and
	(d) to meet concurrently with any committee appointed under Standing Order No. 142 (Domestic Committees), or with the Finance and Services Committee, for the purposes of deliberating or taking evidence.
	(4) The committee shall have leave to meet concurrently with any committee of the Lords on broadcasting, for the purpose of deliberating or taking evidence, and to communicate to any such committee its evidence or any other documents relating to matters of common interest.
	(5) The committee shall have power to make recommendations to the House of Commons Commission or to the Speaker; but any such recommendation whose implementation would incur additional expenditure from the Votes for House of Commons (Administration) or (Works) shall also be considered by the Finance and Services Committee.
	(6) The committee shall have power to make rules and give directions to Officers of the House in respect only of such administrative matters as may from time to time be determined by the Speaker or by the House of Commons Commission.
	(7) Unless the House otherwise orders, all Members nominated to the committee shall continue to be members of the committee for the remainder of the Parliament.
Joint Committee on Consolidation, &c., Bills.	140. - (1) There shall be a select committee, to consist of twelve Members, to join with the committee appointed by the Lords as the Joint Committee on Consolidation, &c., Bills to consider-
	(a) consolidation bills, whether public or private;
	(b) Statute Law Revision Bills;
	(c) bills prepared pursuant to the Consolidation of Enactments (Procedure) Act 1949, together with any memoranda laid pursuant to that Act and any representations made with respect thereto;
	(d) bills to consolidate any enactments with amendments to give effect to recommendations made by one or both of the Law Commissions, together with any report containing such recommendations;
	(e) bills prepared by one or both of the Law Commissions to promote the reform of the statute law by the repeal, in accordance with Law Commission recommendations, of certain enactments which (except in so far as their effect is preserved) are no longer of practical utility, whether or not they make other provision in connection with the repeal of those enactments, together with any Law Commission report on any such bill; and
	(f) any Order in Council laid or laid in draft before the House where an affirmative resolution is required before it is made, or is a condition of its continuance in operation, and which but for the provisions of the Northern Ireland Act 1974 would, in the opinion of the committee, have been enacted by a consolidation bill, whether public or private, or by a Statute Law Revision Bill.
	(2) The committee shall have power to send for persons, papers and records; and to sit notwithstanding any adjournment of the House.
	(3) Two shall be the quorum of the committee.
	(4) 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.
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.
	(7) The quorum of the committee shall be five.
	(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.

Prepared 26 January 2001