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Liaison: Select Committee Report

Volume 571: debated on Tuesday 2 April 1996

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3.2 p.m.

My Lords, I beg to move the first Motion standing in my name on the Order Paper.

Moved, That the First Report from the Select Committee be agreed to (H.L. Paper 57).—(The Chairman of Committees.)

Following is the report referred to:

  • 1. In our Second Report, Session 1994–95, we recommended that the Dangerous Dogs (Amendment) Bill [H.L.] should be referred to a Select Committee, and that thereafter a further ad hoc Committee on the Public Service should be appointed. The Select Committee on the Dangerous Dogs (Amendment) Bill [H.L.] has now reported.
  • 2. We recommend that the Committee on the Public Service should have the following terms of reference:
    • "To consider the present condition and future development of the Public Service in Great Britain with particular regard to the effectiveness of recent and continuing changes and their impact on standards of conduct and service in the public interest.
    • For the purposes of the Select Committee, the Public Service should be deemed to exclude local government, the National Health Service, schools and institutions of higher and further education, but to include all Government Departments, executive agencies, non-departmental public bodies, companies, trusts and other organisations created by or working for the public service."
  • 3. In the light of the debate in the House on 8 March on the Government's plans for the future of Recruitment and Assessment Services, we suggest that the Committee should begin by reporting, as a matter of some urgency, on that specific matter. The Committee should accordingly have power to report from time to time.
  • 4. Finally, we invite members of the House to submit proposals for the appointment of ad hoc Committees into specific matters. Such submissions should be made to the Clerk to the Liaison Committee, Committee Office, House of Lords, London SW1A OPW.
  • My Lords, with the permission of the House, I should like to ask the Chairman of Committees a question. On the assumption that we concur with the receipt of the report, can the noble Lord explain what further action is necessary to activate the ad hoc Committee on the Public Service? Has the noble Lord received any information from the Lord Privy Seal on when the Government propose to table a Motion to set up that committee in view of the fact that they have declined to give any information on what they propose to do with regard to its subject matter?

    My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for letting me know in advance that he was proposing to intervene in this way. The customary consultations have already begun about the membership of the committee. The next step will be for the Committee of Selection to meet and to recommend to your Lordships the names of the chairman and other members of the committee. The report of the Committee of Selection will then be moved in your Lordships' House. Those steps will take place if your Lordships pass this Motion this afternoon. I hope that those steps will take place in the week we resume after the Easter Recess.

    On Question, Motion agreed to.