HC Deb 06 November 2001 vol 374 cc197-8W
49. Mr. Pike

To ask the President of the Council what plans he has to make proposals to the Select Committee on Modernisation of the House of Commons to improve the scrutiny of legislation.[10359]

Mr. Stephen Twigg

It is essential that Bills leave this House properly scrutinised by MPs. I hope that we can build on the Modernisation Committee's report from the last Parliament on the legislative process. We have made efforts to ensure that more Bills are published in draft form and subject to Committee scrutiny before they are presented to Parliament.

I hope that the Modernisation Committee will return to these issues to assess how we might improve pre and post-legislative scrutiny. However, we must also address the issue of scrutiny by MPs during a Bill's passage and how we might improve legislation by finding ways to overcome the bottlenecks in the parliamentary process.