Scottish Affairs Committee

35.

Mr. Dalyell
To ask the Lord President of the Council if he will take steps to nominate the Scottish Affairs Committee.

Mr. MacGregor
No. The hon. Member will appreciate that there has been no change in the circumstances preventing action in the current Parliament.

Mr. Dalyell
Is it not deeply unsatisfactory that there is no Select Committee to consider the views of the Scottish police on Lockerbie, which are deeply different from the stated views of the Foreign Secretary and of the Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the hon. and learned Member for Grantham (Mr. Hogg)? Furthermore, is it not deeply unsatisfactory that there is no way of interrogating the Lord Advocate on the evidence that he says he has in relation to Libya? With the trial of the two men taking place this very day in Tripoli, will the right  hon. Gentleman as a senior member of the Government undertake that before any sanctions or military action are pursued by Her Majesty's Government there will be a proper report to Parliament?

Mr. MacGregor
The second part of the question is outside the scope of the original question relating to the Select Committee on Scottish Affairs. On the first part of the question, both those matters could be considered by other Select Committees. For reasons that the House knows, we have been unable, throughout the earlier part of this Parliament, to reach an agreement about separate consideration by a Select Committee on Scottish Affairs. This Parliament has, at most, only a few months to run and it is therefore not appropriate to set up such a Committee now.

Mr. Bill Walker
Is my right hon. Friend aware that we would have had a Select Committee on Scottish Affairs, if that Committee had not attempted to produce a report which did not reflect accurately the evidence received by the Committee? That is why some hon. Members like me refused to serve on it. We did not want to be party to those activities.

Mr. MacGregor
My hon. Friend refers to one of the difficulties that we had earlier.

Sir David Steel
Does the Leader of the House accept that as the Scottish Office is not under scrutiny by a Select Committee, it is the only Department of state to be unscrutinised? Because of its multiple responsibilities, is not the Scottish Office already less answerable to the House than are English Departments of state? In view of that, will the Leader of the House give some support to the debate next Monday in the Scottish Grand Committee, where the Constitutional Commission's proposals will be before the Committee?

Mr. MacGregor
It was my right hon. Friend who recommended not only the debate next Monday but that two others should take place on devolution and other issues. Clearly, I am keen for that debate to take place. It will enable the country to have a better view of all the issues involved in the proposals currently under discussion.