Sustainable Development: Select Committee (Hansard, 17 March 1994)

§ The Chairman of Committees (Lord Ampthill)
My Lords, I beg to move the Motion standing in my name on the Order Paper.
Moved, That, as proposed by the Committee of Selection, the following Lords be named of the Select Committee—

L. Barber of Tewkesbury,

L. Beaumont of Whitley,

V. Blakenham,

L. Chapple,

L. Chorley,

L. Gregson,

L. Jenkin of Roding,

E. Lindsay,

B. Nicol,

L. Skidelsky,

L. Tombs (Chairman);

That the Committee have power to adjourn from place to place;
That the Minutes of Evidence taken before the Committee from time to time be printed and, if the Committee think fit, be delivered out;
That the Committee have power to appoint Specialist Advisers;
That the Committee do meet on Tuesday, 29th March at a quarter-past three o'clock.—(The Chairman of Committees.)

§ Lord Renton
My Lords, I wonder whether the noble Lord Chairman can help with regard to what is said about minutes of evidence. It seems that they are all to be printed, but it is only if the committee thinks fit that they are to be delivered out, whatever that means. It is an unusual phrase, and it is something up with which the late Sir Winston Churchill would not have put.

§ The Chairman of Committees
My Lords, it is with the greatest hesitation that I have to say that I fear that the noble Lord is mistaken. Those are perfectly usual and normal words which are used on such occasions.

§ Lord Boyd-Carpenter
My Lords, perhaps I may ask my noble friend what "sustainable development" means.

§ The Chairman of Committees
My Lords, I am not sure whether the noble Lord, Lord Boyd-Carpenter, wants me to give the long or the short answer. I suspect that the shorter one would probably please the House more. This is a matter of immense complexity. Perhaps we may leave it to the Select Committee.