Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by Tony Wright (Labour). It was answered on Tuesday, 5 July 2005 on behalf of the Leader of the House of Commons.

Legislative Scrutiny

Question: Over the years, we have had umpteen reports which show that we do not scrutinise legislation effectively here, with the result that our legislation is often flawed. We all know that that is true. We still do not see enough draft legislation, we legislate too much, our Standing Committees do not work well in scrutinising and, when amendments come back from the other place, we often do not consider them at all. In the next phase of modernisation, will my hon. Friend give his attention to making scrutiny more effective?

Answer: I am of course happy to do that, and I pay tribute to the part that my hon. Friend has played through chairing the Public Administration Committee with distinction. Nobody would claim that our scrutiny is beyond criticism, but we sit for longer than most legislatures and our mechanisms for scrutiny here, in the other House and through Joint Committees, are invaluable and detailed. Of course, we will consider any proposals to improve on that with great care, and I hope that we could act swiftly on them.

Secondary information