EUROPEAN STRATEGY FOR COMBATING RADICALISATION
AND RECRUITMENT TO TERRORISM (14781/05)
Letter from the Chairman to Rt Hon Charles
Clarke MP, Secretary of State, Home Office
Thank you for your letter of 16 December[157]
which was considered by Sub-Committee E (Law and Institutions)
at its meeting of 8 February 2006.
The Committee welcomes your assurances that
the protection of fundamental freedoms, and in particular freedom
of expression, will be given the utmost consideration in the implementation
of the Strategy. We will examine carefully all proposals and initiatives
which emanate from this Strategy in order to ensure that fundamental
rights and freedoms are not eroded.
In order to do this as effectively as possible,
it is critical that we have sight of proposals and accompanying
EMs at the earliest possible stage. While we accept that time
constraints and divergent views within the Council can make it
difficult to submit proposals well in advance of adoption, we
are sure you will agree that sufficient time ought to be allowed
for scrutiny by national parliaments and that the scrutiny reserve
should only be overridden in exceptional circumstances. Documents
which are most sensitive, and will therefore be the hardest to
agree within the Council, are the very documents which this Parliament
ought to have the opportunity to examine in detail. Your undertaking
to ensure that any legislative proposals or financial initiatives
that may emanate from the Strategy in the future will be submitted
for scrutiny "as soon as is practicably possible" is
helpful. However, it provides limited reassurance where it is
not, in the Government's opinion, practicably possible to deposit
the proposal any earlier, as appears to have been the case here.
We urge the Government, in such cases as these,
to look at ways of maximising parliamentary participation. A recent
Report by this Committee, Review of Scrutiny: Common Foreign
and Security Policy (19th Report, Session 2005-06, HL 100)
looked at scrutiny in second pillar matters. The Committee reported
the efforts made by the FCO to enable more effective scrutiny
to take place. These include advising the Committee in advance
of proposals which are expected to be agreed and submitting draft
(ie unsigned) EMs at the same time as the proposal. In relation
to restricted documents, an unclassified summary is provided to
assist the Committee. We invite the Home Office to adopt this
practice. We would also encourage the submission of earlier drafts
of proposals and delaying the adoption of proposals which are
not time-critical.
The Committee decided to clear this document
from scrutiny.
9 February 2006
157 Correspondence with Ministers, 45th Report of
Session 2005-06, HL Paper 243, pp 418-419. Back
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