Bill Wiggin
Main Page: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Mr Speaker
The short answer to the right hon. Gentleman is that the best thing he can do is to seek, in a matter of days, to persuade his colleagues who are in a position to do so to facilitate the establishment of those Committees without further delay. Traditionally, I do not think that it will be objected to—certainly not by any serious Whip—if I say that the Whips have not regarded it as their prime concern to establish Select Committees to scrutinise the Executive, of which they are the defenders. That is to put it mildly. However, they do have a responsibility in this matter. The Leader of the House, as the House’s representative in the Government, has a particular responsibility, supported by the shadow Leader of the House and the Opposition Chief Whip, to bring about the constitution of those Committees.
For those who were not here earlier, the matter was raised in respect of the Liaison Committee, and I pointed out that the same concern applied to the European Scrutiny Committee and to the Intelligence and Security Committee, which is not a Select Committee, but an important Committee none the less. The right hon. Gentleman has now identified how it applies with such force to the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy. He has also explained how the failure to constitute the Committee has effectively created a void for an important potential witness. This is now an embarrassment and it needs to be sorted, preferably this week.
Bill Wiggin (North Herefordshire) (Con)
Further to that point of order, Mr Speaker. Knowing as you do that Whips are not able to speak, I thought that it might be helpful to say that I suspect that there will be some very good news on this subject in the foreseeable future. However, I believe that the usual channels are stuck and that there are certain names that the Opposition parties need to return to the Government.
Mr Speaker
I do not know about that. The hon. Gentleman says in the course of his contribution that Whips cannot speak. Well, they are not supposed to speak, but it does not stop them, now and again, doing so, sometimes from a sedentary position in a more or less orderly fashion. As to the subject of disputed names, that is not something with which he would expect the Speaker to preoccupy himself. My concern is simply to facilitate the constitution of the Committees, which are those of Parliament, and which, I suspect, most Members on both sides of the House want to see established. In short, let us get on with it.