DEPARTMENTAL SELECT COMMITTEES

That this House notes that in 1979 Norman St. John-Stevas moved the motion to establish departmental select committees to embark `upon a series of changes that could constitute the most important reforms of the century'; further notes that he cited `public and professional anxiety' at Parliament's failure `to subject the Executive to limitation and control; to protect the liberties of the individual citizen; to defend him against the arbitrary use of power'; further notes that these committees were to examine the whole range of activity for which Ministers have direct responsibility and look at the activities of some public bodies that exercise authority over which Ministers do not have direct authority; further notes that they were to be a necessary preliminary to the more effective scrutiny of government and the wider involvement that hon. Members on both sides of the House had sought for many years, to provide closer examination of departmental policy and action and to contribute to greater openness in government; further notes that hon. Members have subsequently exercised their select committee duties diligently and in doing so have enhanced their learning, becoming more effective participants in the procedures of parliamentary democracy; further notes that deliberate exclusion of any hon. Member from the prospect of appointment to these committees undermines the committee system's purpose, is an obstruction of the proper democratic process and represents a betrayal of universal franchise; and believes that this danger should be drawn to the attention of all hon. Members and specifically to the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury, whoever be the incumbent.