§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will place in the Library a list of the European Community's working groups, stating in each case the number of times each group has met, the nature of the UK delegation, the documents submitted to the Council and the working group's purpose. [86761]
§ Ms QuinA full list of European Community's working groups will be placed in the Library once it has been received from the Council Secretariat.
There is no centrally held record of the number of times that working groups have met. The UK is usually represented in working groups by officials from the relevant government department or the UK's Permanent Representation.
Working groups make reports and recommendations on legislative proposals from the Commission. These are then passed to the Council of Ministers for a final decision. The working group reports are not normally published, but the legislation, once enacted, is published in the Official Journal and is also available on the CELEX database.