LIAISON COMMITTEE
First Report
Session 1997-98
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Thursday, 20 November 1997
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By the Select Committee appointed to
advise the House on the resources required for select committee
work and to allocate resources between select committees; to review
the select committee work of the House; to consider requests for
ad hoc committees and report to the House with recommendations;
to ensure effective co-ordination between the two Houses; and
to consider the availability of Lords to serve on committees:
ORDERED TO REPORT
Future Committee activity
1. The Committee's First
Report, Session 1996-97, recommended the reappointment of
the Committee on the Public Service in the new Parliament, on
the understanding that it should complete its work by Christmas
1997. We have therefore considered whether another ad hoc
Committee should be appointed after that Committee has reported
to the House, but we have decided to defer a decision until the
new year. This will enable us to take account of any proposals
which may have emerged by then.
The European Union budget
2. We have considered
the suggestion, made during Starred Questions on 4 November (Official
Report, cols. 1317-18) that an additional Select Committee
might be appointed to examine the European Union budget and perhaps
other aspects of European Union expenditure.
3. We understand that
the difficulties encountered by the European Communities Committee
in scrutinising the annual budget proposals arise from the tight
timetable, allowing little time for scrutiny, and that this problem
is being actively addressed by the Committee, in particular in
correspondence with Treasury ministers. We consider that it would
serve no useful purpose to appoint a separate Committee. Nor would
it be right to set up an additional Sub-Committee of the European
Communities Committee, when only a year ago the number of Sub-Committees
was increased from five to six for an experimental period of two
years.
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