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Administration Committee

I intend to deal with that point when I reach the part of my speech—if we ever get there—on proposals for the appointment of Select Committees. I have been asked about the matter on several occasions in the House and have made it clear, and repeated today, the importance of the role of political parties. If my hon. Friend the Member for Nottingham, North (Mr. Allen) is to be satisfied in his understandable concern about the need to respect democratic principles in the selection of Select Committee members, it is important to deal with such matters thoroughly. I have indicated that that has been the case for the Labour party. Thoroughness takes time, but that thorough approach has allowed the Committees to be appointed before the summer recess, which was an undertaking that I gave to the House, and allowed political parties to be involved in the necessary democratic process for the selection of their candidates. That seems to me to be a perfectly proper compromise—