ACCOMMODATION IN THE PALACE OF WESTMINSTER. (Hansard, 14 June 1944)

VISCOUNT CRANBORNE

My Lords, the Message on the Paper, which it is now my duty to ask your Lordships to consider, is one which was received from another place on the 6th of June, and it is in the following terms: 243 That it is expedient that a Joint Committee of Lords and Commons be appointed to inquire into the accommodation in the Palace of Westminster, and to report thereon with such recommendations as appear to them desirable. I have already mentioned this matter to the House of Lords Offices Committee, and the view of the Committee, as I understood it, was that so long as this proposed Joint Committee confined the scope of its inquiries to establishing facts and elucidating the position as to accommodation in the building generally, then it might be very useful for members of both Houses to have its Report in their hands.

Your Lordships will note that there is in the Message a reference to recommendations. That, I think, is common form. It clearly would not be possible to debar the Committee, if they had so agreed, from making any recommendations. Indeed, I should have thought that the members of the Committee would have been very unwilling to serve if they were completely debarred from making recommendations of any kind. At the same time, I want to make it perfectly clear to the House that such recommendations—if any are made—will in no way commit your Lordships' House. They will only be made for the purpose of enabling Parliament to give due consideration to the facts which emerge from their examination. In these circumstances, I would suggest to your Lordships that a Message should be sent to the House of Commons acquainting them that this House agrees to the proposal. The next step would be, as I understand it, that the House of Commons should return a Message, giving to this House the names of the members whom they would propose should represent the House of Commons on the Joint Committee. It would then be for me to select for submission to your Lordships the names of members of this House to serve upon the Joint Committee. I think there is nothing more that I need say now, and I beg to move that this House do agree with the message from the Commons.