§ The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government why the Bingham Committee on the Law of Discovery has been suspended.
§ The Lord Chancellor (Lord Hailsham of Saint Marylebone)My Lords, in May of this year the European Commission of Human Rights ruled admissible the application by the honourable Member for Peckham that the United Kingdom was in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights. Failing a friendly settlement the commission thereupon became obliged to rule on the merits of the application. Clearly the Bingham Committee could not consider further the selfsame area of law without knowing the outcome of the proceedings before the European Commission. To avoid wasting the time and effort of the distinguished members of the committee, I requested its chairman to suspend the proceedings.
Lord MorrisMy Lords, I thank my noble and learned friend the Lord Chancellor for that Answer. However, I should like to ask him whether the abandonment of the commission is by way of a postponement of the publication of its report or whether the report will die a natural death?
§ The Lord ChancellorMy Lords, would the noble Lord kindly repeat that question?
Lord MorrisOf course, my Lords. While thanking my noble and learned friend for his Answer, I should like to ask him whether the abandonment of the Royal Commission report is by nature a postponement of the publication of the report or whether the publication of the report will die of natural causes?
§ The Lord ChancellorMy Lords, it was not a Royal Commission; it was a committee headed by Mr. Justice Bingham, and there is no report. But of course if there is not too long a delay and no friendly settlement, and the Court of Human Rights gives its judgment, I shall have to consider what I do next. The committee has only been suspended, not dissolved. It still exists, but it has not yet reported.