Question

To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker what steps he plans to take to engage the devolved parliaments and assemblies in the work of the House.

There are a number of areas where we currently engage the devolved parliaments and assemblies in the work of the House. For example, the European Union Committee has twice visited Belfast in the course of its work on the impact of Brexit on UK-Irish relations, most recently on 31 January. It also engaged closely with devolved governments and legislatures in its 2017 inquiry into Brexit: devolution, visiting Cardiff and Edinburgh before publishing its report on 19 July 2017.

Following a recommendation contained in that report, on 12 October 2017 I chaired the first meeting of the Interparliamentary Forum on Brexit, attended by chairs and convenors of committees involved in scrutinising Brexit from the House of Lords, the House of Commons, the Scottish Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales, along with officials from the Northern Ireland Assembly. I then chaired the second meeting of the Forum, again at the House of Lords on 18 January. This engagement is set to continue, with the third meeting of the Forum due to take place in Edinburgh in March. I have also met the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union to discuss engagement with the devolved parliaments and assemblies.

As well as engaging the devolved parliaments and assemblies in our work, staff from across the Administration work formally and informally with their opposite numbers in the devolved parliaments and assemblies, in line with the House Administration’s strategy, to take account of best practice in other organisations. In keeping this two-way engagement, I have ensured that representatives of the devolved parliaments and assemblies have been invited to submit evidence to the current review of Select Committees. In addition, I have also met with a number of colleagues from the devolved parliaments and assemblies as Senior Deputy Speaker and look forward to continuing this work in future.