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Parliament (Joint Departments) Bill [HL]

I have some sympathy with the spirit of the amendment proposed. The noble Lord, Lord Cope, is quite right: the amendment as currently drafted would provide for an 18-month rather than six-month delay between the end of year and the report. In terms of the practice envisaged here, the House of Commons Commission and the House Committee already publish annual reports. It is anticipated that the joint departments would include within those reports a report of their work. We do not need to legislate about an annual report, but in listening to what noble Lords have said about the importance of recognising that a joint department is somewhat different from other departments, I see no reason why we should not encourage the House Committee, for example, to ask the joint department to put a separate report on its work to the House Committee, which can then be available to Members of this House. Rather than including it in legislation in the way proposed by the noble Lord, Lord Cope, I would ask the noble Lord to withdraw the amendment and for there to be a very strong push from the House Committee—a number of representatives on that committee are in the Chamber—to ask that a separate report be produced for them which can then be made available to the House as a whole. In that spirit, I ask the noble Lord to withdraw his amendment.