Let it not be said that the House of Commons is incapable of reforming itself.
On Wednesday the Leader of the House, Robin Cook, announced proposals for modernising the procedure of the Commons which has been largely unchanged for a century or so. The headline change will be the shift of Prime Minister's Question Time from 3pm to noon; the idea behind this may be that MPs will not by this early hour have had their liquid lunches, so the backbenchers will be less rowdy than they traditionally tend to be. It is also thought that more people will be able to see the PM in action on the lunch time TV news bulletins. Mr Cook's proposals include a number of sensible reforms, such as a shorter summer recess and a rollover procedure for parliamentary Bills so that they can be carried forward from one session to another instead of being lost if they are not completed, as at present. Most importantly, Mr Cook has proposed various measures that will strengthen the role of the crossparty Select Committees which do such valuable work including one that will take the appointment of Committee chairmen away from the party whips. There should be a wide welcome for Mr Cook's initiatives which broadly return rights to MPs that have been lost in recent years to the executive. However, the welcome among ministers may not be so warm; they will find themselves more acountable to Parliament as they should be.
Overdue reform
07/12/2001 00:00
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