Members' Responses on Explanatory Statements
(P 46, 2008-09)
EMAIL FROM CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE TO MEMBERS
OF PUBLIC BILL COMMITTEES BILL
I understand that you have been appointed to
the public bill committee considering the [Coroners and Justice]
Bill.
As you may be aware, the Leader of the House
has agreed with the Procedure Committee that amendments to all
bills in public bill committees this Session may be accompanied
by an explanatory statement from the tabling Member, outlining
the intended effect of the amendment. This is part of an experiment
to determine whether the benefits of such statements in helping
Members prepare for debates outweigh the costs.
Once the Bill has been reported and the committee
stage concluded, if you have any views on the usefulness of explanatory
statements on amendments, I should be grateful if you would let
me know, as this would be of great assistance to the Procedure
Committee in determining whether to recommend that such an experiment
should be made permanent.
February 2009
Meg Munn MP
We've just finished committee. We only had a
few amendments where there was an explanation and these were all
government amendments.
I put down a few amendments myself but didn't
add an explanation—this was because I was unfamiliar with
the procedure and there was no particular prompt for me to do
so. The issue of explanations was referred to by the Clerk in
one memo but no particular guidance was given. I think if guidance
had been there then backbenchers might have been more inclined
to put down explanations.
I'm not sure whether opposition spokes people
think they are a good idea—we didn't have any amendments
from them with explanations. The nature of many amendments is
to be probing—not sure how much they would want to reveal
this beforehand.
Where explanations were used by the government
they were useful.
I certainly think the experiment should be continued
for the time being but that it needs to be brought to the attention
of committee members more formally at the time they are appointed
to the committee.
March 2009
David Kidney MP
The ability to give an explanation alongside
the amendment did not seem to be used much during the Committee
Stage of this Bill but I still think the idea is sound and sometimes
it helps other members of the Committee when an MP gives an explanation
for an amendment which otherwise seems somewhat obscure.
April 2009
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