Sir Malky's answer to the West Lothian Question? Just set up an English Grand Committee, composed of all MPs sitting for English constituencies, which will determine English laws on the basis of English votes. Somehow I doubt if it's that simple.
First, House of Commons Committees do not usually make final decisions. Essentially, they make recommendations, which require to be confirmed by the House of Commons as a whole. This is the case with standing committees which consider the detail of proposed legislation (hence the report stage of bills where the Commons has to consider any amendments proposed by the standing committee). It is also the case with committees established to consider subordinate legislation, where once again the Commons as a whole has the opportunity to endorse or otherwise the Committee's proposals. Even the good old Scottish Grand Committee, now more or less in abeyance, had to have its conclusions (when it ever reached them) endorsed by the Commons as a whole. Is Sir Malky proposing something different with regard to his new English Grand Committee? If not, what is the point? But if he is proposing that an English Grand Committee should be empowered to over-ride the wishes of the Commons as a whole, he may find that he has bitten off a little more than he can chew.
Second, legislation (whether for England or for the UK as a whole) is not determined solely by the Commons sitting in plenary session. Yes, the overall principle of a bill is decided at second reading by the Commons as a whole and it is presumably this consideration which Sir M wants to see handed over to an English Grand Committee (at least for English bills). But what about the so-called line by line consideration of a bill which is at present conducted by a standing committee of 15 to 30 MPs? The membership of such standing committees carefully reflects the make-up of the Commons as a whole, so that the UK Government has a built-in majority. Is Sir M proposing to change this principle? Once again, this would be a much more radical reform than hinted at so far. And there would be precedents - what about bills that only affect London? Should they be considered only by London MPs? And it is possible to envisage bills which affect only Scotland, eg on electoral reform - would the Tories be happy for a committee composed solely of Scottish MPs (of which the Tories have only one) to determine the matter?
(Incidentally, it is worth noting that, at present, English bills would usually be considered by committees made up of English MPs, even if Labour has a majority. Scottish MPs have no great interest in purely English bills and are only drafted onto such committees in cases of emergency.)
Once a bill has been considered by committee, it is referred back to the Commons as a whole for its report stage - that is the report back to the Commons on the outcome of the committee's considerations. Does Sir M propose that the report stage should be referred back to the English Grand Committee? And would this require a further report stage when the bill is sent back to the Commons?
Perhaps Sir M has answers to these questions (but don't hold your breath). But I doubt if the establishment of an English Grand Committee only able to consider the second reading of English bills without addressing the subsequent stages of legislation would satisfy the English radicals. On the other hand, to go any further would raise some profound questions about how the Commons operates. I have not seen the paper which Sir M sent to Ken Clarke's review group and which has not been published. Let us hope that someone in the Tory party has the sense to think it through.
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