Liaison

Lord Sewel Excerpts

Thursday 27th March 2014 Lords Chamber

Moved by

[The Chairman of Committees]

That the 1st Report from the Select Committee (Review of select committee activity and proposals for new committee activity) (HL Paper 145) be agreed to.

[The Chairman of Committees (Lord Sewel)]

My Lords, in our 2012 report we recommended an increase in ad hoc committee activity, including an additional committee unit. In our 2013 report we recommended a further additional committee unit. As a result, more ad hoc committees have been appointed this Session than ever before.

The Liaison Committee discussed the work of the three ad hoc committees appointed in the present Session with their respective chairmen: the noble Lord, Lord Harris of Haringey, chairman of the Olympic and Paralympic Legacy Committee; the noble Lord, Lord Howell of Guildford, chairman of the Soft Power Committee; and the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, chairman of the Personal Service Companies Committee. All three were enthusiastic about the work of their committees, although the time constraints of the two short ad hoc inquiries had meant that the programmes of both committees had been telescoped. The next Session will be the last in the present Parliament and, as such, may be compressed, so we decided not to recommend the appointment of any short ad hoc committees during the 2014-15 Session.

We discussed the work of this Session’s post-legislative scrutiny committees with the noble and learned Lord, Lord Hardie, chairman of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 Committee, and the noble Lord, Lord Shutt of Greetland, chairman of the Inquiries Act 2005 Committee. Both committees have now reported and already have had a very marked and significant impact.

The increase in Select Committee activity during the past two Sessions has been well received, as has been the practice of inviting Members of the House to put forward their own proposals for ad hoc committees. This is a thorough and open process and allows all Members of the House to put forward their suggestions. This year’s deadline of 15 January was advertised on the front cover of Red Benches in December 2013 and through the party Whips and I routinely mentioned the opportunity for Members to submit topics when I went on my usual tour of the party groups and the Cross-Benchers’ meetings.

Twenty-two members of the House put forward proposals for ad hoc Select Committee activity in the 2014-15 Session by the deadline of 15 January. As was the case last year, our consideration was a two-stage process. On receipt of the proposals, a limited amount of research was carried out by the Committee Office to assist our first deliberation. At our meeting on 4 February, we shortlisted a number of the proposals for further scoping work by the Committee Office, which assisted our final recommendations at our meeting on 4 March. I am happy to say that, perhaps in part because of the thorough process that we followed, the committee was unanimous in agreeing the recommendations that are now before your Lordships.

Several Members of the House called for a Select Committee on foreign affairs. The noble Lord, Lord Howell of Guildford, also proposed that the House should appoint a further ad hoc committee on an international relations subject to succeed the ad hoc Committee on Soft Power and the UK’s Influence, which he chaired during the present Session. We were attracted to the proposal put forward by the noble Lord, Lord Howell, but do not think it appropriate at this late stage in the Parliament to set up any new sessional Select Committees, whether on international relations or any other subject. We were attracted also to the proposal put forward by the noble Lord, Lord Tugendhat, for an ad hoc committee to consider a range of issues relating to the Arctic, which could cover defence security, environmental security, energy security and the consequences of the redrawing of world trade routes in a hostile environment. The Arctic is an area that is moving, changing and developing very quickly and brings many significant questions to the fore. We think that this would be a good choice for an ad hoc committee on an international relations subject in the next Session.

The noble Baroness, Lady Massey of Darwen, proposed the establishment of a Select Committee on affordable childcare, following a debate in the House on 9 January 2014, and the committee agreed to support her proposal. Access to affordable childcare is an important factor both in women’s participation in the labour market and in child development.

We also agreed to support the proposal put forward by the noble Baroness, Lady O’Cathain, for a Select Committee on ICT, competitiveness and skills. This is another topic in which there is considerable interest and expertise in the House, expressed most recently during the Oral Question on 25 February on careers guidance in schools. We also agreed to recommend a new post-legislative scrutiny committee for the 2014-15 Session and to support the proposal of the noble Baroness, Lady Garden of Frognal, for the establishment of a post-legislative scrutiny committee to examine the Extradition Act 2003 and the law relating to extradition.

I hope that your Lordships will support the committee’s decision to maintain the unprecedentedly high level of committee activity in Session 2014-15. Inevitably, it was not possible for the Liaison Committee to recommend to the House all the proposals received, but I hope that your Lordships will agree with me that this is a well balanced group of committees and subject areas.

On 13 March, nearly two months after the deadline for receiving proposals from Members of the House, I was sent an e-mail on behalf of a number of Members of the House asking,

“the Liaison Committee to create an ad hoc select committee on reform of the civil service to start work immediately”.

I hope that noble Lords will understand that this struck me as a bit of a bolt from the blue in that it sought to bypass what is an open, transparent and established selection process. I found it difficult to understand how a topic that received no support on 15 January could suddenly emerge by 13 March as the most urgent and important topic that we should address. I am therefore pleased to see that the noble Lord, Lord McNally, has now tabled an amendment referring to the possibility of a Joint Committee on the Civil Service, particularly asking the House to agree that, if a message were received from the House of Commons inviting the House of Lords to appoint its share of such a Joint Committee, the Liaison Committee would meet again to consider the proposals. I am very happy to agree to that and accept the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord McNally, as it reflects our normal procedure—as one would expect, given that the noble Lord was until recently a member of the Liaison Committee. Of course, I cannot prejudge the decision that the Liaison Committee may make if we were to receive any such message from the House of Commons.