Clause 6 - Minister’s duty to inform Parliament or Assembly
Inquiries Bill [Lords]
2:30 pm
Mr Jonathan Djanogly (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; Huntingdon, Conservative)
A major reason for drafting the Bill was to respond to the spiralling costs of public inquiries. The Government stated in their consultation paper, “Effective Inquiries”,
“that any new legislation on inquiries should include a statutory requirement on the chairman to have regard to ... costs to public funds”.
That is not adequately dealt with in the Bill. As it stands, the chairman merely has the obligation to have regard to the need to avoid any unnecessary cost. There is no mechanism to keep an inquiry’s costs in check, so, as promised on Second Reading, we have tabled amendments to address that deficiency.
It is a well known fact that excessive amounts have been spent on inquiries in recent years. The regulatory impact assessment estimated that more than £300 million has been spent since 1990, and that was only allowing £14 million for the Saville inquiry, estimates for which now range from £155 million to £250 million. Viscount Goschen put those sums in context by reminding us that according to the figures produced by the noble and learned Lord Chancellor, it would cost £150 million to run the supreme court for 20 years. The figures are astounding and indefensible. The money has been spent and we must now ask how that exorbitant expenditure can be avoided.
Viscount Goschen made a convincing case for a solution. Without a budget, there can be no hope of proper cost control. Having an estimate on the public record at the outset would be a powerful tool in ensuring that the minds of the chairman and the commissioning Ministers were focused on costs. The Conservative Opposition continue to support that approach to enforce some kind of cost control on those who are setting up and running inquiries.
Amendment No. 5 would require the Minister setting up the inquiry to lay the likely cost before Parliament, thereby forcing him to take some responsibility for his decision to launch the inquiry and provide transparency in the budgeting process. It is appropriate that Parliament should know how much an inquiry will cost from the outset and provide some democratic legitimacy for the ministerial decision to spend taxpayers’ money in that way.