---

Members' Salaries, Pensions and Allowances

The right hon. and learned Lady and I have the privilege of serving together on the Members Estimate Committee, which is the House of Commons Commission wearing another hat. I am not convinced by her argument that it would be too time consuming or unnecessary duplication if the Members Estimate Committee was given the authority to carry out a review, admittedly in parallel, but possibly talking to different people and involving different experts in the House from those to whom Sir John may have access. I do not propose that we set ourselves limited terms of reference; we would have the power to range far and wide. The right hon. and learned Lady is right. The Members Estimate Committee could do this in any case. My amendment merely seeks to give it slightly more moral authority and a guarantee that whatever we produce will be debated in the House. If my amendment is passed, we would have the right to bring our review forward for colleagues' consideration. If not, we could publish many memorandums until we were blue in the face but we would have no automatic right to have them discussed.