Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :

To ask Her Majesty's Government, for each government department, from July to December 2017, on how many occasions the Scrutiny Reserve Resolution was overridden in (1) the House of Lords, and (2) the House of Commons; and in respect of how many documents an override occurred in (a) both Houses, (b) the House of Lords, and (c) the House of Commons.

Between July and December 2017, 508 EU proposals and other documents were submitted for scrutiny.

Across both Houses there were 95 occasions when the Government supported decisions in the EU Council of Ministers before the scrutiny procedures had been completed by either one or both Scrutiny Committees.

In each case the Government explained to the Scrutiny Committees why it was important for the proposal to be supported before clearance had been provided. This period of reporting coincided with the extended period in the new Parliament before the European Scrutiny Committee in the House of Commons was re-appointed on 30 October 2017 and only began meeting again on 13 November to scrutinise documents. As with previous six-monthly periods, the largest category of instrument was fast-moving and sensitive CFSP and EU restrictive measures where there were 66 such instruments adopted before scrutiny could be completed.

The figures requested are set out below: