HC Deb 14 May 1969 vol 783 cc1400-2
38. Mr. Tudor Watkins

asked the Lord President of the Council when he expects to issue a White Paper containing his observations on the Special Report from the Select Committee on Agriculture.

Mr. Peart

The Government have taken careful note of the Select Committee's criticisms and helpful suggestions. They will bear these in mind in their present consideration of the future pattern of the Select Committee system, and in their subsequent recommendations to the House. It is not proposed to issue a White Paper.

Mr. Watkins

May I express to my right hon. Friend my bitter disappointment that he cannot issue a White Paper, since the Committee spent a good deal of time analysing, as the first specialist Committee, the workings and the future and the attitude of the Executive towards specialist Committees? I should have thought that a White Paper was the very thing to discuss in the House.

Mr. Peart

I should have thought not. I had a large part in setting up this Committee, and it was always understood—my predecessor said it—that it was the Government's intention to establish experimentally for this Session two new Committees. One was the Select Committee on Agriculture. It has worked well. We must wait.

Mr. Jopling

Does the right hon. Gentleman realise that by taking this action, having already wound up the Committee because it did the proper job of this House, he is adding insult to injury?

Mr. Peart

No, there is no insult here. The hon. Member, who takes a great interest in this, and was a distinguished member of the Committee, should not feel sensitive about this. I suggest that he and I love agriculture, in the best sense, and want to help it, but the Committee was set up for an experiment.

Dr. John Dunwoody

Does my right hon. Friend not accept that the failure to issue a White Paper casts some doubt on his attitude towards Select Committees as a whole? Is this a precedent for the future?

Mr. Peart

My hon. Friend should know that I believe strongly in the creation of Select Committees; already, this Session, I have set up others. I merely said that we should see how they go. It may be that this Select Committee will be established permanently one day, but it was set up as an experiment, and we must look to the experiment later.

Mr. Hooson

As this was a very important experiment and the special Report of the Committee was an all-party Report, is it not incumbent on the Government to state their views on the considered views in that Report?

Mr. Peart

I will, of course, bear this in mind. I have said that.

Mr. Godber

Whatever views the right hon. Gentleman may have on this matter, would he not acknowledge that there is general concern on both sides of the House about it? Would he not, therefore, reconsider his approach, and see whether it would not be worth while to make these facts available for the House to judge for itself?

Mr. Peart

As the right hon. Gentleman knows, I was much more sympathetic to Select Committees than he was. I pressed this when I was in Opposition. I am anxious that we should have a careful survey of the experiments which we have had with the various Select Committees; then the House must decide.

Mr. Hazell

If my right hon. Friend cannot issue a White Paper on the Select Committee's Report, can he tell us when the House will be able to debate the Report?

Mr. Peart

I cannot. I have said that we shall bear it in mind.

Mr. Bryant Godman Irvine

Is not the right hon. Gentleman aware that, although he and his Government appear very little interested in Select Committees and, in particular, the Select Committee on Agriculture, the farmers and the people of this country have taken considerable note of what was done?

Mr. Peart

The hon. Gentleman should not say that. I took a great interest. I was the first Minister to appear before the Select Committee, and I instructed my Department to collaborate and help in every way. He ought not, therefore, to say that.

Mr. Speaker

Order. I remind the House that supplementary questions and answers, if they become long, exclude other hon. Members who are anxious to have their Questions raised in the House.