§
27 Clause 15, page 7, line 18, at end insert—
("(5) The standing orders shall include provision for the publication of the minutes of the proceedings of committees appointed under sections 17, 18, 21 and 53 of this Act as soon as practicable after the day on which they take place.")
§ The Commons disagreed to the above Amendment for the following Reason:
§ 28 Because the publication of proceedings of committees of the Assembly should be a matter for the Assembly.
§ 4.18 p.m.
§ The LORD CHANCELLORMy Lords, I beg to move that this House doth not insist on their Amendment No. 27, to which the Commons have disagreed for the Reason numbered 28. We have just considered the previous Amendment which, in a slightly modified form, your Lordships have accepted. The present Amendment would extend the publication requirement to proceedings of the subject committees, the executive committee, the scrutiny committee and the accounts committee. That, in our view, would be unacceptable. Unlike the Scottish Assembly, the Welsh Assembly will be the Executive. Inevitably, therefore, some of the proceedings of the committees, and in particular of the executive committee, 678 will be of a confidential nature, and it is our view that it would be unsuitable to write into the Bill a requirement that the minutes of the proceedings of the committees, especially the executive committee, should be automatically published. Although it is not a Cabinet, the executive committee will have something of a Cabinet flavour, and in our submission it would not be sensible to make a statutory provision about publication.
This is not to say that the Assembly should or will decide to operate their committees behind a veil of secrecy. They will almost certainly decide to publish minutes in most circumstances—except, perhaps, minutes of the proceedings of the executive committee—but this is a matter which I submit should be left to the Assembly to sort out for itself. The Government therefore remain opposed to the Amendment and I trust that, in the light of the disagreement to the Amendment by the other place without even a call for a Division, the House will not insist upon it. I beg to move.
§ Moved, that this House doth not insist on the said Amendment, to which the Commons have disagreed for the Reason numbered 28.—(The Lord Chancellor.)
§ Lord ELTONMy Lords, I regret the decision the Commons have taken on this matter and I think that, if the Welsh Assembly is eventually called into being by a referendum, many others will come to regret that decision as well. The Assembly will see such a proliferation of committees and such a parcelling out of interests that the public ought to have a better view of what is going on inside those Committees than is at present required of the Assembly by the Bill. All the Bill provides for is a whispering behind closed doors. However, the Commons have conceded the principle of the Report of Plenary Sessions and the noble and learned Lord, Lord Morris of Borth-y-Gest, will, I am sure, be glad that I feel this is a matter on which we should trust the Assembly to he of good sense. If it is not, I think there is a good deal of trouble ahead for it. That being the case, with some misgivings but in the hope that the noble and learned Lord, Lord Morris of Borth-y-Gest, is right and I am wrong, we shall not pursue the matter.