Business of the House: Appointment of Select Committees (Hansard, 12 December 2000)

§ The Lord Privy Seal (Baroness Jay of Paddington)
My Lords, I beg to move the Motion standing in my name on the Order Paper.
Moved, That, unless any Lord objects, leave be given to the Chairman of Committees to move the five Motions standing in his name relating to the appointment of Select Committees en bloc.—(Baroness Jay of Paddington.)

§ Lord Goodhart
My Lords, I notice that this list of Select Committees does not include the Joint Committee on Human Rights, and such a committee is long overdue. We have had a legal adviser to the Select Committee on the payroll for several months without a committee to advise. I understand that the latest snag in setting up the committee was the fact that on 30th November, a Motion in the other place to approve the remit of the committee was talked out by a number of Conservative MPs.
What are the plans to overcome that snag in the other place? When can we expect to see the appointment of that committee?

§ Baroness Jay of Paddington
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart. I share his frustration about this matter. As your Lordships will be aware, this House passed a Motion that it was expedient to set up such a committee in July and sent a message to another place. The noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, is correct that on 30th November, a Motion to do that, which is what we need to respond to now, was on the Order Paper in another place and was, indeed, talked out by Members of the Opposition party.
I understand that yesterday a revised Motion was tabled in another place on the remaining orders and that the business managers in another place hope to take that very shortly. But I am afraid, as I am sure the noble Lord is aware, that there is nothing that we can do in this House until the Commons has agreed our message. We can only hope that that is done very speedily.

Lord Renton
My Lords, perhaps I may ask the noble Baroness how it is that on two of the Select Committees, no Peeresses are serving at all? One is the Delegated Powers and Deregulation Committee and the other is the Statutory Instruments Committee.

§ Baroness Jay of Paddington
My Lords, as your Lordships know, in this House we do not exercise any rules of quotas or positive discrimination.