Appendix 2
Minutes of the Speaker's Committee
Minutes of the First Meeting, Session 2005-06,
Wednesday 6 July 2005
Present: The
Rt Hon Michael J Martin MP, Speaker, in the Chair
Mrs Anglea Browning MP
Sir Gerald Kaufman MP
Mr Peter Viggers MP
Apologies: Rt
Hon the Lord Falconer of Thoroton, Lady Hermon, and Mr Humfrey
Malins MP
1. Speaker's Opening Remarks
The Speaker welcomed members and thanked those who
had been reappointed for agreeing to serve again. He noted that,
for the present, the Committee consisted of seven members only:
the Prime Minister had not yet appointed to the Committee a Minister
with responsibility for local government, and there was no Chairman
of the Constitutional Affairs Committee yet as the Committee had
not been nominated.
The Speaker informed the Committee that, since the
General Election, the Department for Constitutional Affairs had
taken over responsibility for local elections from the Office
of the Deputy Prime Minister.
The Speaker said that thanks were due to Mr Nick
Raynsford, Minister for Local Government, Regional Governance
and Fire in the last Parliament, for his work as a member of the
Committee.
2. Appointment of a member to act as Chairman
in the absence of the Speaker
The Committee decided to defer a decision on this
matter.
3. Appointment of a member to answer Parliamentary
Questions on behalf of the Committee
The Speaker thanked Mr Viggers for taking the lead
on this matter in the last Parliament after Mr Beith had become
Chairman of the Select Committee on the Lord Chancellor's Department[18].
Mr Viggers had indicated that he was happy to continue in this
role, and the Committee agreed that he should do so.
4. The Speaker's Committee Review of the Electoral
Commission
The Speaker reported that he had received a letter
from Sir Alistair Graham, Chairman of the Committee on Standards
in Public Life (CSPL), indicating that CSPL was considering options
for its next major inquiry, on which it would take a decision
in late September. These included a possible review of the implementation
of the Committee's Fifth Report[19],
which dealt with the funding of political parties in the United
Kingdom, and which led directly to the creation of the Electoral
Commission. In his letter, Sir Alistair had recognised that any
inquiry into the Electoral Commission would overlap with the Speaker's
Committee's planned inquiry, particularly in relation to those
elements relating to the governance model underlying the Commission,
and its accountability to Parliament and other stakeholders[20].
Sir Gerald Kaufman suggested that the Committee should
request from the Electoral Commission a report on its activities
relating to the General Election both in the period running up
to the calling of the Election and during the Election period.
This would enable the Committee to review their efficacy, necessity
and success. The Committee agreed that the Secretary should ask
the Electoral Commission to submit a paper on this matter.
Mr Viggers noted that, while there might well be
significant overlap between the governance angles of the two inquiries,
the scope of what CSPL proposed would not necessarily cover all
the areas the Committee had in mind.
The Committee agreed that there would be little scope
for overlap with the elements in its own inquiry relating to the
Commission's business and financial planning processes, including
processes for resource allocation, Estimate preparation and forward
planning; how the Commission assesses the effectiveness of policy
outcomes; and how the statutory role of the Treasury in relation
to the Estimates and Corporate Plans and the reports of the Comptroller
and Auditor General contribute to the discharge of the Committee's
duty. It confirmed that these would be taken forward now as originally
planned.
As to the examination of the Commission's roles and
duties, the necessary leadership and management structure, and
the relationship of the Commission with the Speaker's Committee
and other stakeholders, particularly political parties, the Committee
agreed that there was substantial potential for overlap with any
CSPL inquiry. It therefore deferred a decision on whether and,
if so, in what form, to take forward this leg of its proposed
inquiry until CSPL had reached a decision on its next major inquiry.
The Committee asked the Secretary to convey these
decisions to CSPL, and to ask it to let the Committee know when
it had reached a decision on its next major inquiry and, should
it decide to inquire into the Electoral Commission, to let it
have details, including the terms of reference.
It was agreed that Sir Gerald Kaufman and Mr Viggers
would work with the Secretary to finalise details for those elements
of the Committee's review which are to proceed immediately, to
be submitted to the Speaker for his approval.
5. Report on the work of the Committee to the
end of the last Parliament
The Committee agreed a report to the House on its
general work over the period from 1 December 2004 to the Prorogation
of Parliament on 7 April 2005.
This report has been published as the
Committee's Second Report 2005
(HC 435, Session 2005-06).
6. Appointment of Commissioners
The Speaker noted that the appointments of two Electoral
Commissioners, Glyn Matthias and Karamjit Singh, expire in January
2006, and that the question of their reappointment would need
to be addressed after the Recess. He asked the Secretary to put
in hand appropriate preliminary inquiries.
7. Any other business
The Committee discussed in general terms some of
the particular issues concerning the respective disclosure requirements
of the House and the Electoral Commission in relation to donations
in the election period which had to be faced by candidates in
the recent General Election who were returned to the House.
The Committee noted that Jenny McCullough was moving
to another post in the Clerk's Department, and thanked her for
her work for the Committee over the last year.
8. Date of next meeting
The Committee adjourned to a date and time to be
fixed by the Speaker.
18 Now the Constitutional Affairs Committee. Back
19
Cm. 4057-I, October 1998. Back
20
The terms of reference agreed by the Committee on 18 January 2005
were published as an Annex to the minutes of that meeting. See
the Committee's Second Report 2005 (HC 435, Session 2005-06) pages
14-15. Back
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