Liaison Committee

Lord Spicer Excerpts

Thursday 21st March 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Forsyth of Drumlean]

My Lords, I am very happy to sit at the feet of the noble Lord, Lord Foulkes, when it comes to having lots to say. I have two short questions for the Chairman of Committees. I wrote to him suggesting that we had a foreign affairs committee. In a global world where we have to make progress outside the European Community from an economic point of view, it seems extraordinary that we do not have such a committee. I understand the reasons for constraint on resources, but can he explain why it costs £225,000 to run a Select Committee of this House? Where does the money go?

[Lord Spicer]

My Lords, one piece of evidence in favour of the proposition of the noble Lord, Lord Jopling, is the very high proportion of Questions asked on foreign affairs—which is almost as high as the proportions of those asked on old age and health.

[Lord Triesman]

My Lords, perhaps I may add a few words in support of a foreign affairs committee. For a considerable time, I have been closely associated with debates on foreign affairs from both the Government and Opposition Benches. Each year it seems less intelligible that we do not have the resource to do the detailed and interrogative work that is needed in a committee format. There is great expertise in the House; that is without question. There is a great deal of experience in the House and I do not question that either. We all rely on a variety of sources, particularly in opposition when you do not have the resources of the Foreign Office to rely on in preparation for debate.

However, what is plainly absent is detailed interrogation in relation to significant problems, and the noble Lord, Lord Jopling, illustrated the two that have perplexed me to the greatest extent. We do not have the ability to interrogate with regard to that sort of information, making use of resources from outside in order to compile the most authoritative set of descriptions of those problems. It is a fundamental limitation, and it is one that spreads right across the House—not just to the Front Benches but to the whole of the Back Benches—and it is no surprise to me at all that that is why support for this proposition is heard on all Benches this morning. It is high time that that change was made. I regard it as urgent.