Monday 14 July 2008

WRITTEN MINISTERIAL STATEMENT

Leader of the House of Commons

Debating departmental objectives and annual reports

Leader of the House of Commons, Lord Privy Seal and Minster for Women (Harriet Harman):  The Modernisation Committee published its Second Report of session 2007-08 (HC 530) Debating departmental objectives and annual reports on 30 April. This report responded to the invitation in the Government's Green Paper July 2007 Governance of Britain (Cm 7170) that the Committee should examine ways in which the House should be given additional opportunities to debate "the annual objectives and plans of the major Government Departments in order to strengthen further Parliament's scrutiny of the Executive".

Governance of Britain noted that while select committees are already free, through the Liaison Committee, to select for debate the overall work of Departments (usually on the basis of a committee report or evidence on the Department's Annual Report), the only regular annual debates on departmental objectives take place on the work of the Treasury (through the Budget debate and the PBR statement), the Ministry of Defence (through the regular defence debates) and the Wales Office (through the debate on Welsh affairs). As a result "a year can pass with the objectives and plans of some departments having never been properly discussed".

The Modernisation Committee Report noted the competing pressures on available debating time in different parliamentary fora and that the most appropriate selection of departments on which to hold debates may vary from year to year. It concluded that "additional opportunities to debate departmental objectives and annual reports could be provided by rebalancing the present programme of business and identifying existing opportunities more systematically, without the need for changes to the standing orders or the invention of a new formal procedure".

The Government agrees with these conclusions and accordingly will be seeking to ensure that the annual objectives and plans of a range of Government Departments will be debated each year through a combination of existing procedures:

In the main Chamber, the Government will seek to identify opportunities for debate on individual Departments' objectives and plans as set out in annual reports:
- either on the basis of a specific Motion that the House has considered the matter of the Department's objectives and plans or
- by 'tagging' the annual report or other appropriate report to a relevant debate;
This will be in addition to the opportunities already provided for the Treasury, Ministry of Defence and Wales Office. The Government will take into account any review of the number and allocation of the current annual Chamber debates.

In Westminster Hall, on the Thursday afternoon slots not specifically allotted by Standing Orders as being at the disposal of the Liaison Committee, the Government will seek to identify opportunities for departmental objectives debates:
- by facilitating requests from the Liaison Committee for such debates on the basis of select committee reports or evidence
- and by identifying other opportunities for such debates at the initiative of the Government.

The Government would welcome a wider review into the work of Westminster Hall, which would provide an opportunity to examine whether further time for debates of this nature could be provided.

These opportunities will of course be in addition to any such debates which select committees table, through the Liaison Committee, for consideration on Estimates Days. As noted in the Second Report of the present session from the Liaison Committee Parliament and Government Finance: Recreating Financial Scrutiny (HC 426), to which the Government will be responding shortly, the Treasury's Alignment project on the financial documentation (including the Estimates) made available to Parliament will provide an opportunity in due course for the House to review further the pattern of Estimates Days and the exact forms of motion which it would be appropriate to consider on Estimates Days.
 
Through these means it will be possible for the objectives and plans of a range of Government Departments to be debated each year, as envisaged in Governance of Britain. Since there will be no single House procedure under which these debates will take place, the Government will monitor closely how this system is operating. As the Modernisation Committee has suggested, there could be scope on occasion for debates to be cross-departmental debates where the objectives (in the form of PSAs) link to more than one department and in some cases material and publications other than the departmental annual report will also inform the debate.

The Committee has also emphasised the importance of the relevant departmental select committee playing a central role in these debates, and proposes that debates should not take place until after the relevant select committee has completed its work on any departmental annual report. The Government certainly envisages that select committees will be key contributors to the debates and the Liaison Committee will be a major initiator of the debates in Westminster Hall. Many debates will take place on the basis of proposals instigated by committees themselves on the basis of work they have completed. For those debates not instigated by select committees, it is difficult to give a firm undertaking that debates should not take place until after a select committee has completed its work, since different committees examine departments' annual reports on very different timescales and there will be a range of factors influencing the timing of a debate; nevertheless the Government will seek to liaise with relevant committees and the Liaison Committee to try to ensure that any select committee work is taken into account in the timing of any such debate.

The Modernisation Committee emphasises that the new arrangements should be reviewed at the end of the current Parliament. The effectiveness of the new approach will no doubt also be reflected in the regular discussions between the Leader of the House and the Liaison Committee.