§ Motion made, and Question proposed,
§
That a Select Committee be appointed to consider every Statutory Instrument, every Scheme or Amendment of a Scheme, requiring approval by Statutory Instrument, and every draft of such an Instrument, Scheme or Amendment, being an Instrument, Scheme, Amendment or Draft which is laid before the House and upon which proceedings may be or might have been taken in the House in pursuance of any Act of Parliament, every other general Statutory Instrument, and every Order which is subject to Special Parliamentary Procedure, with a view to determining whether the special attention of the House should be drawn to it on any of the following grounds—
(1) that it imposes a charge on the public revenues or contains provisions requiring payments to be made to the Exchequer or any Government department or to any local or public authority in consideration of any licence or consent or of any services to be rendered, or prescribes the amount of any such charge or payments;
(2) that it is made in pursuance of an enactment containing specific provisions excluding it from challenge in the courts either at all times or after the expiration of a specified period;
(3) that it appears to make some unusual or unexpected use of the powers conferred by the Statute under which it is made;
(4) that it purports to have retrospective effect where the parent Statute confers no express authority so to provide;
(5) that there appears to have been unjustifiable delay in the publication or in the laying of it before Parliament;
(6) that there appears to have been unjustifiable delay in sending a notification to Mr. Speaker under the proviso to subsection (1) of section four of the Statutory Instruments Act 1946, where an Instrument has come into operation before it has been laid before Parliament;
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(7) that for any special reason its form or purport calls for elucidation;
(8) that the drafting of it appears to be defective;
and if they so determine, to report to that effect.—[Mr. Eyre.]
§ 9.58 p.m.
§ Mr. David Clark (Colne Valley)We object to the establishment of this Select Committee. The Motion proposes:
That a Select Committee be appointed to consider every Statutory Instrument, every Scheme or Amendment of a Scheme…and every draft of such an Instrument, Scheme or Amendment …requiring approval by Statutory Instrument.We object, because we feel that such a Motion needs time for discussion, and that it is not proper to allow it to go through without reasonable time for debate.
§ Mr. Peter Hardy (Rother Valley)It appears from line 39 of the Motion that the quorum is to be three. Does my hon. Friend agree that a quorum of three is scarcely satisfactory given the important nature of the Statutory Instruments Committee—
It being Ten o'clock the debate stood adjourned.
Debate to be resumed Tomorrow.