Counter-Terrorism Bill
10:30 am
Crispin Blunt (Whip, Whips; Reigate, Conservative)
Thank you, Mr. Bercow. As a member of the usual channels, you can be sure that we already have taken it up. However, I have now put the matter on the record, which is all that I was seeking to do. I was not seeking to challenge the decision of the Committee of Selection.
The amendment goes to an important principle about the conduct of Public Bill Committees. I know that the House is at an early historical stage in dealing with Public Bill Committees. This is the second Committee on which I have sat that takes evidence at the beginning of its proceedings.
There is an important issue, first, about the opportunity to hear witnesses whose points of view might be uncongenial to those held by the Committee and particularly to the majority on the Committee. There is also an important point of principle about Back Benchers.
The suggestion that Dame Stella Rimington be a witness came to me from my hon. Friend the Member for Lancaster and Wyre as soon as he was notified that he had been selected to serve on the Committee. By that point, the usual channels had, in the normal way, had more than one discussion about which witnesses might be appropriate to assist our proceedings. I thought that the suggestion from my hon. Friend was excellent. However, I proposed that he make the suggestion, as a Back-Bench member of the Committee, through the usual channels—the Clerk of the Committee—so that the witness could be regarded as not having been produced in collusion by the usual channels and the Front Benches.
It is important that Back Benchers should have witnesses whom they wish to see. However, although the suggestion had my strong support and that of my hon. and learned Friend, we received a response from the Cabinet Office to the effect that the matter had to be dealt with through the usual channels. I thought that that was inappropriate and that the system ought to allow for the suggestion of witnesses from Back-Bench members of the Committee, and should not rely on the fact that my hon. Friend has a particularly good relationship with his usual channels. That should not be a requirement for the endorsement of that suggestion. However, that was the first response. It was then taken up through the usual channels, and, to my surprise, no inquiry has been made of Dame Stella’s availability to attend. The motion put forward by the Government yesterday at the Programming Sub-Committee did not include Dame Stella Rimington.