asked the Lord President of the Council if he will make a further statement on the setting up of the Public Expenditure Committee.

asked the Lord President of the Council when he now expects to establish the Select Committee on Public Expenditure.

I hope that the Motion establishing the Select Committee will be tabled this week.

While thanking the right hon. Gentleman for that most welcome, gratifying news, may I ask whether he will tell us what will be the number of Members on the Committee and, most important of all, the number of staff which will be seconded to it?

I would ask the hon. Gentleman, as I am sure he will appreciate, to await the Motion which I shall be putting on the Order Paper.

Concerning the membership of the Committee, having originally in the Green Paper proposed 45, I shall propose in the Motion that it should be 49.

I shall be discussing the number of staff with the Chairman as soon as the Committee is set up. We shall then consider how best we can meet his requirements.

Will the full Committee have power—I will not use the expression "hive-off"—to divide itself into such sub-committees as it desires? If so, will the right hon. Gentleman make absolutely certain that there will be adequate staff, so that there will not be a doubling-up of the activities of, say, one clerk to take responsibility for one or two, or even three, sub-committees?

I am sympathetic to what the hon. Gentleman says. When the Committee is set up, I shall want to discuss the whole question of staffing with the Chairman. I should like to await that discussion before being certain what can be done to help. I want to help as best I can.