HL Deb 07 March 2001 vol 623 cc207-8

3.9 p.m.

Lord Tordoff

My Lords, I beg to move the second Motion standing in my name on the Order Paper.

Moved, That a Select Committee be appointed to consider and report on the issues connected with human cloning and stem cell research arising from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Research Purposes) Regulations 2000;

That, as proposed by the Committee of Selection, the following Lords be named of the committee:

  • E. Carnarvon,
  • B. Cumberlege,
  • L. Dahrendorf,
  • L. Donoughue,
  • B. McIntosh of Hudnall,
  • B. Northover,
  • B. O'Neill of Bengarve,
  • Bp. Oxford (Chairman),
  • B. Perry of Southwark,
  • B. Platt of Writtle,
  • B. Warwick of Undercliffe;
That the committee have power to appoint specialist advisers;

That the committee have power to adjourn from place to place.—(Lord Tordoff.)

Baroness Knight of Collingtree

My Lords, I rise to ask the noble Lord, Lord Tordoff, to think again about this matter. This House and the other place have stressed the importance of impartiality in chairmen. The right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Oxford has made it very plain that he is extremely partial in this very sensitive matter. Has the noble Lord received letters today from vicars and others dissociating their section of the Church of England from those views on stem cell research? Will the noble Lord agree that, like justice, impartiality must not only be done but be seen to be done?

The Lord Bishop of Guildford

My Lords, in the past few years my noble friend the Bishop of Oxford has been asked by the Archbishops to chair the Church's Social Responsibility Committee and been entrusted with that task. The task of that committee is to advise the Church on these kinds of issues. In dealing with these matters I can think of no one on the Bishops' Benches with a better grasp of the complexities of both the moral and technical questions. He has the full confidence of these Benches, and I hope that that confidence is shared by the House.

Lord Tordoff

My Lords, I am grateful to the right reverend Prelate. I am slightly shocked that anyone should consider that a man of the integrity of the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Oxford is incapable of chairing a Select Committee of this House other than impartially. One cannot always have chairmen of Select Committees who have no views at all. Speaking as one who chairs a Select Committee of this House and who holds strong views, I hope it is not thought that I handle that committee with partiality. I hope that the noble Baroness is prepared to withdraw her remarks.

Lord Cocks of Hartcliffe

My Lords, perhaps the Deputy Chairman of Committees will clarify one matter. When the House recently set up the Joint Committee on Human Rights the chairperson was not chosen until the committee met for the first time. Why is it a tradition of this House that chairpersons should be nominated by a group other than that which meets to conduct the business?

Lord Tordoff

My Lords, the short answer is that it is a Joint Committee of both Houses and therefore the chairman must be nominated by that committee.

On Question, Motion agreed to.