§ Mr. Lambieasked the Lord President of the Council if he will now make a 149W statement on the provision of up-to-date texts for debates on EEC documents recommended by the Select Committee on European Legislation.
§ Mr. FootThe documents recommended by the Select Committee for debate are generally published Commission proposals for legislation and the Commission does not normally revise the texts of its proposals during the course of negotiations. But the Government provide the House with information on changes which seem likely to be agreed by means of up-dated explanatory memoranda. They cannot, however, undertake to provide revised Community texts. Where such texts exist they are confidential negotiating documents and not authoritative revisions. However, the Government recognise that exceptional cases can arise in which the original texts are seriously out-dated and informal revisions can usefully be prepared. In such cases they will do their best to include in explanatory memoranda prepared for the purpose of debate texts to illustrate the current state of a proposal. Motions for debate will accordingly draw attention as appropriate not only to the original documents but also to the relevant explanatory memoranda.