Standing committees
92. We were interested, though not surprised, to
hear from participants in the Hansard Society programme that,
although they were able to follow proceedings in the Chamber and
Westminster Hall, and in select committees, reasonably easily,
many of them found proceedings in standing committee utterly baffling.
There are a number of reasons for this, the principal among which
is that the business of scrutinising a bill clause by clause,
considering amendments and new clauses (which are usually grouped
in such a way that amendments may be debated long before the point
at which they occur in the bill is reached), sometimes under an
order of consideration which means that the committee considers
different parts of the bill in a different order from that in
which they occur, is inherently complex. Several of the participants
recognised this fact and remarked that they were pleased to see
what looked like thorough scrutiny of legislation, even if it
was not readily apparent to them exactly how the process worked.
93. There is also the question of the papers needed
to follow proceedings in standing committee. The observer needs
not only the bill itself, but the explanatory notes to the bill,
the amendment paper and the chairman's provisional selection,
which shows which amendments the chairman proposes for debate,
and in what order. It can be very difficult for Members, never
mind visitors and other interested parties, to follow what is
going on in a standing committee. One needs to be able to cross-refer
constantly between the amendment paper, the selection list and
the bill in order to understand what is being discussed. Even
then it may be difficult to understand the impact of an amendment
as the explanatory notes cover only the original wording in the
bill.
94. It may be that proceedings in committee are inevitably
complicated, but at present we do nothing to make them more comprehensible.
We recommend that the Procedure Committee consider how better
to present the information from the bill, explanatory notes, amendment
paper and selection list, either on paper or electronically, so
that when an amendment is being debated Members and visitors can
see the original clause, the clause as amended, and an explanatory
note on both, so that the issue under debate is clear to all.
95. In select committee meetings, and in Westminster
Hall, a guide is given to members of the public explaining what
is going on, including a diagram of the room, a brief description
of proceedings and, in the case of select committees, a few words
about the inquiry. We recommend that a guide for visitors to
standing committees on bills should also be produced. We envisage
that most of this guide would be a standard explanation of standing
committee procedure, which would not vary from one committee to
the next, but each should contain a few words about the bill the
committee is considering.
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