§ 2.58 p.m.
§ EARL JELLICOE rose to move, That it is desirable that a Joint Committee of both Houses be appointed to inquire into the procedures and practice by which the control of each House over delegated legislation is exercised and to report how they might be improved.
§ The noble Earl said: My Lords, I beg to move the Motion standing in my name on the Order Paper. Your Lordships may have seen from paragraph 4 of the very valuable Report of the Joint Select Committee on Delegated Legislation which sat last Session under the chairmanship of my noble friend Lord Brooke of Cumnor, that the Committee felt that there were four main fields of study to which they should address themselves in this highly 600 complex area. It is my understanding now (and I congratulate them on this, because it is rather a remarkable achievement) that they have completed three of these fields of study but in the course of the last Session they were not able to report on the fourth field, which would cover such matters as the classification and analysis of the character of Statutory Instruments. There is a great deal of very dense Parliamentary undergrowth in this particular field, and it is my belief that it would be extremely important, not only for this House but for Parliament as a whole, that they should report on this fourth area which they wish to study. The Joint Committee are anxious to resume their work as soon as possible and the Motion I am moving to-day is the first step towards reappointing that Committee. I beg to move.
§ Moved, That it is desirable that a Joint Committee of both Houses be appointed to inquire into the procedures and practice by which the control of each House over delegated legislation is exercised and to report how they might be improved.—(Earl Jellicoe.)
§ LORD SHACKLETONMy Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Brooke of Cumnor, will be tired of hearing words of admiration for his work and that of his Committee; and why they should want to continue with such an onerous task it would be difficult to understand were it not for the great sense of public duty that the members of this Committee obviously have. They are about to embark on what I think is a most extraordinarily difficult field, but it is one of such importance that, sooner or later, we hope it will be possible to arrive at a classification of different Orders, if only because it has some bearing on proceedings in your Lordships' House of the kind we had last week.
I hope that the Committee will be encouraged to take their time on this matter. I am impressed by the amount of work they have got through, aided no doubt by the evidence given by the noble Earl and myself. However, I do not think we did much more than state some of the problems, and I hope, therefore, that this time they will be allowed to do a really thorough study. If they cannot conclude their consideration on the first 601 occasion they should not hesitate to produce interim reports, which could be discussed, and then continue their consideration; because they at least must now understand the full nature of the problems, which I am bound to say the great majority of us scarcely understand at all.
§ On Question, Motion agreed to: Ordered, That a Message be sent to the Commons to communicate this Resolution and to desire their concurrence.