HC Deb 21 January 1971 vol 809 cc1413-4

There shall be a select committee, to be called the Expenditure Committee, to consider any papers on public expenditure presented to this House and such of the estimates as may seem fit to the committee and in particular to consider how, if at all, the policies implied in the figures of expenditure and in the estimates may be carried out more economically, and to examine the form of the papers and of the estimates presented to this House; to consist of forty-nine Members, who shall be nominated at the commencement of every session, and of whom nine shall be a quorum:

The committee shall have power to send for persons, papers and records, to sit notwithstanding any adjournment of the House, to adjourn from place to place, and to report from time to time:

The committee shall have power to appoint persons with technical knowledge either to supply information which is not readily available or to elucidate matters of complexity within the committee's order of reference:

The committee shall have power to appoint sub-committees and to refer to such sub-committees any of the matters referred to the committee; three shall be the quorum of every such sub-committee:

Every such sub-committee shall have power to send for persons, papers and records, to sit notwithstanding any adjournment of the House, and to adjourn from place to place:

The committee shall have power to report from time to time the minutes of evidence taken before sub-committees:

The committee and any sub-committee appointed by the committee shall have power to admit strangers during the examination of witnesses unless they otherwise order.—[Mr. Rossi.]