HC 918 - Scrutiny Reform Follow-Up And Legacy Report

Book excerpt: When the Committee published the Scrutiny Reform Report 18 months ago asked the Government to ensure that it responded to the Report within the customary two-month deadline. This did not happen, the Government response was received on the day the House rose for the summer recess, 22 July 2014, eight months after the Report's publication. Moreover, the tone of the Government's response to the key recommendations was overwhelmingly negative and did not sufficiently address our proposals, including those relating to the introduction of a form of national veto and the disapplication of EU law. In this Report the Committee first consider in more detail the background to, possible causes of and the implications of the Government's failure to schedule EU document debates, before turning to some of the other outstanding issues covered in the Scrutiny Reform Report, in particular papers deposit, limitâ documents, and the coverage of EU scrutiny and wider EU issues by the BBC. The Committee also sets out some outstanding scrutiny issues which the successor Committee may wish to consider, in particular scrutiny of the proposed EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.