§ 3.25 p.m.
§ The Lord President of the Council (Viscount Whitelaw)My Lords, the House will recall that on the opening day of the debate on the Queen's Speech I informed your Lordships that I intended to appoint a small informal group drawn from all the parties and the Cross-Benches to advise me on the working of the House. This follows the precedent of the earlier group set up by my predecessor, the noble Earl, Lord Jellicoe, in 1971.
After consultation through the usual channels, I can now inform your Lordships of the composition of the group, which will be as follows: the Chairman of Committees, the noble Lord, Lord Aberdare; the noble Earl, Lord Perth; my noble friend Lord Belstead; the noble Baroness, Lady Llewelyn-Davies of Hastoe, and the noble Lords, Lord Aylestone and Lord 936 Wigoder. The noble Lord, Lord Aberdare, and the noble Earl, Lord Perth, were members of the 1971 group. As on the previous occasion, the group will work informally, without a formal chairman, but the noble Lord, Lord Aberdare, has kindly undertaken to act as convenor of the group. Once again, it will have the assistance of a Clerk.
The remit of the group will be:
to examine the working of the House in present circumstances and to suggest improvements in the conduct of the business of the House".Thus the group will, like its predecessors, be able to range widely over all the proceedings of the House, including, for example, Statements, the length of speeches, the rules of debate, as well as the legislative proceedings, which have perhaps, more than any other, given rise during the past Session to the desire for the present inquiry. There is only one area in which the group may not wish to trespass; namely, that of private legislation, in view of the announced Joint Committee on Private Legislation which is shortly to be set up.I am sure that the group, in conducting its inquiry, will wish to hear the views of your Lordships, and I believe that it will be circulating your Lordships to that end. In the meantime, if there is any noble Lord who wishes to make his views known, I understand from the noble Lord, Lord Aberdare, that he hopes that that noble Lord will send those views to him for the consideration of the group.
In setting out the membership and terms of reference of the group I should emphasise that it will, in the first instance, be reporting to me, as it was my wish for advice and help which led to the initiative. Thereafter it will be my responsibility to determine, after consultation, whether there are points which should be put to the Procedure Committee for its consideration.
§ Lord Cledwyn of PenrhosMy Lords, in the light of our experience over the past two or three years we are extremely grateful to the noble Viscount for making that statement and for taking this important initiative. I feel quite sure that all noble Lords will co-operate with the committee so that we may have a successful outcome.
§ Lord DiamondMy Lords, we on these Benches should like to associate ourselves with those remarks. We are grateful to the noble Viscount the Leader of the House both for the initiative he took during the course of the debate on the Queen's Speech and for the speed with which he has started to implement it.