Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, for each government department, from January to June 2015, (1) on how many occasions the scrutiny reserve resolution in the House of Lords was overridden, (2) on how many occasions the scrutiny reserve resolution in the House of Commons was overridden, (3) in respect of how many documents an override occurred in (a) both Houses or (b) either House.

The Government strongly supports an effective Parliamentary scrutiny system and will always seek to avoid breaching the Scrutiny Reserve Resolution. Where this is not possible, the Government will continue to account for the circumstances of each override in writing to the Committees.

Between January to June 2015, 368 Explanatory Memoranda were submitted. Of the 90 overrides in this period, 73 (81 per cent) of overrides occurred after the dissolution of Parliament when one or both Houses were unable to carry out their scrutiny function. Of the 90 overrides across both Houses, 39 were on fast-moving EU restrictive measures including 11 measures to address the situation in Ukraine.

The figures requested are set out in the table below, which excludes reference to a Commission Communication on the Paris Protocol (‘A Blueprint for tackling Global Climate Change beyond 2020’) because discussion with the European Scrutiny Committee has not yet concluded whether this constitutes an override.