Parliamentary Search

Written question asked by Lord Roper (Non-affiliated), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Lord Howell of Guildford (Conservative) on Tuesday, 10 January 2012.

Houses of Parliament: Scrutiny Override

Question
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, for each department, from January to June 2011, (1) on how many occasions the scrutiny reserve resolution in the House of Lords was overridden, (2) on how many occasions the scrutiny reserve resolution in the House of Commons was overridden, and (3) in respect of how many documents an override occurred in (a) both Houses or (b) either House.
Answer

The Government will always seek to avoid breaching the scrutiny reserve resolutions of either House of Parliament where this is possible. Where overrides are required the Government will continue to account for their actions in writing to the Chairmen of the scrutiny committees in each House. The figures for January-June 2011 are higher when compared against corresponding periods in earlier years, but this can be attributed to the number of urgent measures needed particularly to address the evolving political situation in north Africa and the Middle East. 19 of the Foreign Office's 29 overrides in the House of Lords relate to restrictive measures on Tunisia, Libya and Syria. 10 of the 32 government overrides in the House of Lords occurred when Parliament was in recess. The figures requested are set out in the table below.

Department (1). House of Lords Override (2). House of Commons override (a). No. of overrides in both Houses (b). Total no. of overrides
Department of Business, Innovation and Skills 0 1 0 1
Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 2 2 2 2
Foreign and Commonwealth Office 30 28 26 32
HM Treasury 1 1 1 1
33 32 29 36

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
14410; 734 c46-7WA
Session
2010-12
Subjects
House of Lords House of Commons EU action Parliamentary scrutiny
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk