§ Mr. Spearingasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what was the number of regulations, decisions and directives, respectively, made by the Commission of the European Communities without reference to the Council of Ministers, for each of the years 1973 and 1974; and how many of these documents have been scrutinised by the Select Committee on European legislation.
§ Mr. HattersleyDetails of the numbers of Commission instruments in 1974 were given in my reply of 29th January.—[Vol. 885, c.167–8.] The figures for 1973 were 3,242 Regulations, 285 decisions and eight directives. Commission instruments deal primarily with administrative matters on which powers have been delegated to the Commission by the Council. They are not normally referred to the Council and are not scrutinised by the Select Committee.