David Winnick – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Leader of the House

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Winnick on 2014-04-09.

To ask the Leader of the House, if he will introduce and consult upon proposals for the Standards Committee to be replaced by a body consisting of a majority of lay members with representation of more than three hon. Members without voting rights.

Mr Andrew Lansley

The House strengthened its own procedures in January 2013 by reconstituting the Committee on Standards to include lay member representation, with a specific right to submit an opinion on any report of that Committee and to have it published.

I have had recent discussions with the Chair of the Committee on Standards, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards and other interested parties on ensuring that the standards regime for Members is as robust as it can be.

I expect the Committee on Standards to announce shortly terms of reference for an inquiry examining the current system, which draws on the recent report by the lay members of that Committee. I expect to follow up my discussions with the Committee on Standards in order further to strengthen lay members’ scrutiny of standards matters. If any Member wishes to bring forward specific proposals for improvements to the system, this is of course something that both the Committee and the House will wish to consider.