§ 2.41 p.m.
EARL JELLICOEMy Lords, at the resumption of our business after the Easter Recess (and I am glad to see that at least one noble Lord opposite has been enjoying the sun) your Lordships may like to know that a revised edition of the Companion to the Standing Orders has now been published and is available in the Printed Paper Office. This is the Twelfth Edition of this volume since Sir John Shaw Lefevre compiled his first slim volume in 1862, 110 years ago. Like the previous edition which dated from 1963 this version is issued with the authority of the Procedure Committee, given in the Fifth Report dated February 3 of this year.
My Lords, our thanks are due in full measure to the Clerk of the Parliaments and his staff, who prepared the new edition; to the Companion Sub-Committee of the Procedure Committee who wrestled with the many points of difficulty which arose in the course of revision, and finally to the Procedure Committee themselves for their helpful scrutiny and approval of the text. I am sure that those Members of your Lordships' House who are members of the Procedure Committee will know what a great deal of work went into the preparation of the new edition. This edition is accompanied by a reprint of the Standing Orders relating to Public Business, which includes all amendments made up to the end of January, 1972. The Standing Orders have been renumbered so far as necessary, and since any further renumbering would disturb the references in the present edition it is 5 intended that no further renumbering shall take place until the next edition of the Companion is published.
I think all your Lordships are aware that our procedure has recently been subject to fairly rapid evolution and for that reason the 1963 edition has for some time been very much out of date. The present intention of the Procedure Committee is that the Companion should be republished at more frequent intervals than has obtained at least in the recent past. Both the new edition of the Companion and the revised Standing Orders are now available in the Printed Paper Office and will also be noted on the pink demand form which is circulated to your Lordships and which is familiarly known as the "pink slip". I hope that all your Lordships will make a point of getting your own copies of both these valuable publications.
§ LORD SHACKLETONMy Lords, I should like to thank the noble Earl, the Leader of the House for drawing attention to some really rather splendid work that the Companion Sub-Committee have done. Those of us who have had an opportunity to go through it are gratified to find that the Companion will, be generally in line with our Standing Orders, where we have Standing Orders, instead of in certain respects being flatly contrary to them. May I support the noble Earl in suggesting, as I think he did implicitly, that the re-draft of certain sections will well repay study? The new Companion gives a great deal of clarification about our customs in this House which I believe will help all those who are sometimes inclined to think that the House of Lords is so free that it has no procedural rules of any kind, whereas in fact it has. This Companion provides valuable guidance, and we are very grateful to those who have worked so hard on it.
In accordance with the freedom granted to us in Standing Orders and the new Companion, may I take this opportunity to congratulate the new Ministers on the Government Front Bench, the noble Lord, Lord Polwarth, and the noble Earl, Lord Limerick, who seems to have moved rapidly from one corner of the House to another. We are very glad that although the noble Marquess, Lord Lothian, has suffered a sea change, he has not left us, and I should like to take 6 this opportunity of thanking him for his unfailing courtesy to noble Lords on any matters with which he had to deal. Perhaps I should also congratulate the new Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the noble Baroness Lady Tweedsmuir of Belhelvie, who acquired a great reputation in Scotland on Scottish matters. We shall look forward to equal quality of service from her in her new post. Finally, I would congratulate the noble Earl in getting one more Minister on his Front Bench. We shall expect a greatly improved performance in future.
EARL JELLICOEMy Lords, if I may rise once again, I assure the noble Lord the Leader of the Opposition that the magnificence of the performance of the Government Front. Bench will, naturally, be even enhanced in its new guise. I am sure that I am speaking on behalf of all my noble friends on the Front Bench, and indeed on the Back Benches, in saying how much we appreciate the kind references the noble Lord has made to my new colleagues on the Front Bench.