EU Action: Parliamentary Scrutiny
(asked on 2nd March 2020) - View Source
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, for each government department, from 1 July 2019 to 31 January 2020, on how many occasions the Scrutiny Reserve Resolution was overridden in (1) the House of Lords, and (2) the House of Commons; and for how many documents such an override occurred in (a) both Houses, (b) the House of Lords, and (c) the House of Commons.
The UK left the European Union on 31 January 2020 and is no longer part of the EU’s decision making machinery so no further scrutiny overrides will require to be reported to Parliament.
Between July 2019 to January 2020, 348 Explanatory Memoranda on EU proposals and other documents were submitted for scrutiny.
Scrutiny during this period was interrupted by the dissolution of parliament. There were 54 occasions when the Government supported decisions in the EU Council of Ministers before parliamentary scrutiny procedures had been completed.
Historically, the largest category of instruments on which overrides have occurred have been fast-moving and sensitive Common Foreign and Security Policy measures including EU restrictive (sanctions) measures and during this period there were 40 occasions when such instruments were adopted before scrutiny could be completed.
The figures requested are set out below:
Department | House of Lords override | House Commons override | No. of overrides in both Houses at same time | Total no. of overrides |
Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
Defence | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | 1 | 5 | 1 | 5 |
Foreign and Commonwealth Office | 34 | 39 | 33 | 40 |
HM Treasury | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
International Development | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
International Trade | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Totals | 44 | 52 | 42 | 54 |