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MEMBERS' PAY (MONEY RESOLUTION)
Queen's recommendation having been signified—
- That the following provision shall be made with respect to the salaries of Members of this House—
(1) In respect of service in the period starting with 20th June 2001 and ending with 31st March 2002 the salary of a Member shall be increased by £2,000 per annum.
(2) That salary shall be increased by a further £2,000 per annum from 1st April 2002.
(3) The increases referred to above shall be additional to any increase resulting from the operation of paragraph (2) of the Resolution of this House of 10th July 1996.—[Mr. Robin Cook.]
Select Committees
5 pm
The President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons (Mr. Robin Cook): I beg to move,
- That the following amendments be made to Standing Orders:
A. Select Committee Quorums
S.O. No. 124 (Quorum of Select Committees):
in line 1, at the beginning, insert—
'(A) Except as otherwise provided, the quorum of a select committee shall be three or a quarter of the number of its members, whichever is the greater; and in calculating the quorum fractions shall be counted as one.
(B) Where more than two select committees or sub-committees thereof meet concurrently for the purpose of deliberating or taking evidence, pursuant to Standing Order (Select Committees: power to work with other committees), the quorum of each shall be two.'.
S.O. No. 139 (Select Committee on Broadcasting):
in line 5, leave out from 'Members' to end of line 6.
S.O. No. 141 (Deregulation and Regulatory Reform Committee):
leave out paragraph (10).
S.O. No. 142 (Domestic Committees):
in line 9, leave out from 'Members' to end of the line.
S.O. No. 144 (Finance and Services Committee):
in line 19, leave out from 'Members' to end of the line.
S.O. No. 145 (Liaison Committee):
leave out paragraph (5).
S.O. No. 146 (Select Committee on Public Administration):
in line 10, leave out from 'Members' to end of line 11.
S.O. No. 147 (Procedure Committee):
leave out paragraph (3).
S.O. No. 148 (Committee of Public Accounts):
in line 7, leave out from 'Members' to 'The' in line 8.
S.O. No. 152 (Select Committees related to government departments):
in line 7, after 'concerned', insert 'and'.
in line 8, leave out from 'committee' to 'shall'.
in the table in paragraph (2), leave out the fourth column ('Quorum').
leave out paragraph (5).
S.O. No. 152A (Environmental Audit Committee):
in line 9, leave out from 'Members' to end of line 10.
B. Select Committees (Power to Work with Other Committees)
That—
(1) The following Standing Order (Select Committees: power to work with other committees) be made:
'(1) Any select committee or sub-committee with power to send for persons, papers and records shall have power—
(a) to communicate its evidence to any other select committee or sub-committee of either House of Parliament; provided that evidence from the National Audit Office shall first have been agreed between that Office and the government department or departments concerned;
(b) to meet concurrently with any such committee or sub-committee for the purpose of deliberating or taking evidence; and
(c) to meet concurrently with any other select committee of this House for the purpose of considering a draft report.
(2) Where two or more select committees have agreed reports to the House in identical terms, those reports may be published as a joint report; and
(2) That the following amendments be made to Standing Orders:'
S.O. No. 139 (Select Committee on Broadcasting):
in line 16, leave out from 'communicate' to end of line 33, and insert 'its evidence to the House of Commons Commission'.
S.O. No. 141 (Deregulation and Regulatory Reform Committee):
leave out lines 116 to 126.
S.O. No. 142 (Domestic Committees):
in line 23, leave out from 'communicate' to end of line 40, and insert 'its evidence to the House of Commons Commission'.
S.O. No. 143 (European Scrutiny Committee):
leave out paragraphs (12) and (13).
S.O. No. 144 (Finance and Services Committee):
in line 28, leave out from 'communicate' to end of line 45, and insert 'its evidence to the House of Commons Commission'.
S.O. No. 146 (Select Committee on Public Administration):
leave out lines 21 to 26.
S.O. No. 148 (Committee of Public Accounts):
leave out paragraphs (3) and (4).
S.O. No. 152 (Select Committees related to government departments):
leave out lines 29 to 42.
in line 47, leave out from 'proceedings' to 'and' in line 52.
S.O. No. 152A (Environmental Audit Committee):
leave out lines 23 to 34.
C. Select Committees Related to Government Departments
That Standing Order No. 152 (Select Committees related to government departments) be amended, by leaving out items 1, 4, 5 and 13 in the Table in paragraph (2) and inserting the following items at the appropriate places:
'Education and Skills/Department for Education and Skills/11';
'Environment, Food and Rural Affairs/Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs/17';
'Transport, Local Government and the Regions/Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions/17'; and
'Work and Pensions/Department for Work and Pensions/11'.
D. Select Committees (Power to Appoint Sub-Committees)
That the following amendments to Standing Orders be made:
S.O. No. 146 (Select Committee on Public Administration):
in line 29, at end add the following words:
'(5) The committee shall have power to appoint a sub-committee, which shall have power to send for persons, papers and records, to sit notwithstanding any adjournment of the House, to adjourn from place to place, and to report to the committee from time to time.
(6) The committee shall have power to report from time to time the minutes of evidence taken before the sub-committee.
(7) The quorum of the sub-committee shall be three.'.
S.O. No. 152 (Select Committees related to government departments):
leave out lines 9 to 14, and insert the following words:
'(3) Each select committee appointed under this order shall have the power to appoint a sub-committee, and the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee and the Transport, Local Government and the Regions Committee shall have power to appoint two sub-committees.'.
S.O. No. 152A (Environmental Audit Committee):
in line 34, at end, add the following words:
'(5) The committee shall have power to appoint a sub-committee, which shall have power to send for persons, papers and records, to sit notwithstanding any adjournment of the House, to adjourn from place to place, and to report to the committee from time to time.
(6) The committee shall have power to report from time to time the minutes of evidence taken before the sub-committee.
(7) The quorum of the sub-committee shall be three.'.
European Standing Committees
That the following amendments be made to Standing Order No. 119 (European Standing Committees):
In the Table, in the column 'Principal subject matter', leave out 'Agriculture, Fisheries and Food', and insert 'Environment, Food and Rural Affairs'.
In the Table, in the column 'Principal subject matter', leave out 'Environment, Transport and the Regions', and insert 'Transport, Local Government and the Regions'.
In the Table, in the column 'Principal subject matter', leave out 'Scottish, Welsh', and insert 'Scotland, Wales'.
In the Table, in the column 'Principal subject matter', leave out 'Social Security', and insert 'Work and Pensions'.
In the Table, in the column 'Principal subject matter', leave out 'Education and Employment', and insert 'Education and Skills'.
Mr. Cook: It may be convenient for the House, especially as so many hon. Members are heading in that direction, if I say that an explanatory memorandum is available in the Vote Office that details the terms and significance of the motion. During last Thursday's debate on programming, the right hon. and learned Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham (Mr. Hogg) suggested that an explanatory memorandum would have been valuable. I am pleased to say that we have been able to respond, and I hope that colleagues who read that testimonial to him will appreciate it. For technical and legal reasons, we have not yet resolved whether we can put it on the Order Paper, but we shall continue to consider that.
I can be brief, because I believe that the motion reflects a broad consensus in many quarters of the House, although I may not carry everyone with me on that. I discussed the motion with the three senior Members appointed by the Liaison Committee in the previous Parliament to continue the work of preparing for the Select Committees and, save for one modest change of detail, the motion fully implements the table and schedule that they presented to me. I hope that the motion will achieve consensus and gain the support of the House.
The motion has two main consequences. First, it will reconfigure the departmental Select Committees so that they track the departmental changes in Whitehall. I anticipate no disagreement with that, especially given the modest attendance. Plainly, those who remain fully understand such matters and know perfectly well that there is no point in having departmental Select Committees that reflect the Departments of the previous Parliament rather than those of this. I hope that hon. Members will support that.
The motion's second main consequence is several modest but important steps that will give Select Committees more freedom and flexibility over their arrangements in two principal ways. First, Select Committees will have the freedom to appoint Sub-Committees. Until now, we have specified by a decision of the House which departmental Select Committees can form a Sub-Committee. Given the importance and stability of Select Committees, that is now unnecessary and old fashioned. We are leaving it to Select Committees to decide for themselves whether forming a Sub-Committee at a particular time and on a particular issue would be of value. That must be right.
Secondly, we are giving every Select Committee the right to form a Joint Committee with any other Select Committee. Again, hitherto, a specific decision of the House was required to enable a Select Committee to form a Joint Committee. Last year, Liaison Committee reports drew attention to the fact that the evolution of government towards joined-up government had created cross-cutting initiatives that were difficult for a Select Committee to track in isolation. They advocated more flexibility in enabling Select Committees to track joined-up government through Joint Committees. The motion gives Select Committees the freedom to form Joint Committees.
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