House of Commons Commission (Hansard, 22 July 1987)

§ Mr. Bob Cryer (Bradford, South)
I shall not detain the House long, although I understand that some people thought that I intended to do so. The motion is fairly narrow and I do not wish to quibble at the appointment of the three Members named in the motion. Indeed, I look forward with relish to them undertaking their tasks.
The House of Commons Commission is appointed under the House of Commons (Administration) Act 1978. Section 4(3) gives members of the Commission, in conjunction with Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the House and a Member nominated by the Leader of the Opposition, the power to allocate functions to the various House Departments.
I suggest that the three Members named in the motion should consider the possibility of including in the annual report, which the Act requires them to present to Parliament, an examination of the work and activities of the professional lobbying organisations to see that no undue lobbying takes place. As a result of their experience, the three people named in the motion are also eminently qualified to consider the activities of all-party groups. Circulars that I have received from some all-party groups bear strange addresses, including the addresses of commercial lobbying organisations. I should like to know more about the relationship between the commercial lobbying organisations and the all-party groups.
The three Members named in the motion should be prepared to undertake that task as the whole House must be anxious to ensure that all-party groups carry out the tasks for which they are eminently suited—for instance, examination of areas of agreement in relation to the disabled—with a measure of success and interest. I do not quibble about all-party groups of that kind, but I am concerned that professional lobbying organisations, paid by outside commercial interests, are providing the secretariat for some all-party groups. I am concerned at the removal of some all-party groups from the normal endeavours in which, by and large, they have a fair amount of good will to commercial marketing and lobbying organisations by virtue of the fact that they are serviced by organisations paid so to do. I believe that the three Members concerned might well spend some time considering these matters within the terms of the Act under which they are appointed.

§ Mr. John Mark Taylor (Solihull)
The hon. Gentleman is developing his argument very skilfully and I am sure that he has the support of many right hon. and hon. Members. He will be interested to know that a letter was written on House of Commons notepaper on behalf of an all-party group during the Dissolution.

§ Mr. Cryer
rose——

§ Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Paul Dean)
Order. I remind the hon. Gentleman that, as he said at the beginning of his speech, this is a fairly narrow motion dealing with membership of the House of Commons Commission, not with additional powers that he may wish it to exercise. I 447 am sure that the hon. Gentleman will follow his own advice and restrict himself to the fairly narrow terms of the motion.

§ Mr. Cryer
I am most grateful to you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, for not allowing me to be led astray by the suggestion that an all-party group has been distributing notepaper as though it were a commercial organisation, although I should not regret it if a little time were spent considering such matters.
To conclude my contribution to this fairly narrow debate, the three Members named in the motion are appointed by the House under an Act of Parliament to carry out, by and large, the running of the House of Commons. That includes the running of the House Departments — the Department of the Clerk of the House, the office of the Speaker, the Department of the Serjeant at Arms, the Department of the Library, the Administration Department and the Department of the Official Report. I suggested that, among those important tasks, those three people should consider the allocation of functions to any House Department. I suggest that they should be able to discuss extending the scrutiny of those all-party groups and organisations by the Department of the Serjeant at Arms to the Speaker and Deputy Speakers.
In not opposing the measure, I want to say that the three people concerned are being approved by the House in a resolution that would normally go through quickly and easily. I hope that they will exercise their functions with diligence, as I believe they will, but just a bit wider than they have in the past. The House of Commons Commission runs all those functions on behalf of Back-Bench Members. There was a struggle to set up the Commission and for it to have a solely House of Commons function. I am just putting down a marker in the hope that the Commission will look a little wider and consider what it can do about some organisations that should be under much closer scrutiny.
I support the motion, but my support cannot be guaranteed in future unless the Commission produces the results that I have talked about.