Houses of Parliament: Security Override

House of Lords written question – answered at on 20 November 2012.

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Photo of Lord Boswell of Aynho Lord Boswell of Aynho Chair, European Union Committee, Principal Deputy Chairman of Committees, Chair, European Union Committee

To ask Her Majesty's Government, for each Government department, from January to June 2012, (1) on how many occasions the scrutiny reserve resolution in the House of Lords was overridden, (2) on how many occasions the scrutiny reserve resolution in the House of Commons was overridden, and (3) in respect of how many documents an override occurred in (a) both Houses or (b) either House.

Photo of Baroness Warsi Baroness Warsi Senior Minister of State (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) (Jointly with the Department for Communities and Local Government), Senior Minister of State (Department for Communities and Local Government) (Faith and Communities) (also in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office)

The Government will always seek to avoid breaching the scrutiny reserve resolutions of either House of Parliament and will continue to account for their actions in writing to the chairmen of the scrutiny committees in each House when this happens.

During this period the Government submitted 482 Explanatory Memorandums (EMs) on proposals and other documents for scrutiny, and each EM can potentially result in overrides in either House. Between January and June 2012, there were 57 occasions when measures were adopted before scrutiny could be completed in either House. Recesses are a constant factor when Parliament's weekly scrutiny processes are interrupted with 18 of the overrides occurring at times when the scrutiny committees were not meeting.

Thirty-two of the total number of overrides involved fast-moving sanctions and restrictive measures proposals on which the Foreign and Commonwealth Office lead, and where delaying agreement would have undermined their effectiveness.

The figures requested are set out in the table below:

Department HoL override HoC override Overrides in both Houses Total
BIS 2 3 0 5
DEFRA 3 3 1 5
DWP 0 2 0 2
FCO 33 35 33 35
HMT 5 5 3 7
HO 2 1 1 2
MOD 1 1 1 1
TOTALS 46 50 39 57

The Ministry of Defence item was an override from November 2011 which was omitted in error from the report for July-December 2011 (HL687).

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