HC Deb 06 June 1997 vol 295 cc255-6W
Mr. Fallon

To ask the President of the Council if she will ensure that the Library receives a copy of each Order in Council. [1923]

Mrs. Ann Taylor

I see no case for additional dissemination of Orders in Council. Over 600 Orders in Council, including those recording the admission of new Privy Counsellors and Ministerial appointments, are made each year. Statutory Instruments are published, in many cases following Parliamentary consideration and are thereafter available in the Library. A number of Orders, which include all those relating to the Civil Service, together with Royal Proclamations, are published in the London Gazette of which the Library holds copies. Proposed revisions to the Statutes of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and their colleges are laid before the House of Commons before approval by Her Majesty. Other categories of Order, including those confirming some 200 Schemes made each year by the Church Commissioners, those approving Channel Islands legislation, those approving the reports of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and those approving the grant of Royal Charters and allowing amendments to the Charters of Chartered bodies, are already in the public domain and copies can always be made available on request.