Presentation Slides Parliament Explained | European scrutiny | House of Commons | 29 October 2015

1. EU Scrutiny in the Commons
Amelia Aspden
Second Clerk of the European Scrutiny Committee

2. The purpose of the scrutiny system
• To ensure the Commons has the chance to influence
UK Ministers on EU proposals
• To hold UK Ministers to account for their activities in
the Council of Ministers
• To provide an additional source of analysis and opinion
about EU legislative proposals, and to highlight flaws
• To increase transparency of how business is transacted
in the EU Institutions (scrutiny reserve)
• An important role in policing the principle of
subsidiarity

3. Commons EU Scrutiny: a documents based
system
• Explanatory
Memorandum
• European Scrutiny
Committee
• Scrutiny reserve
• Debate

4. European Scrutiny Committee
• 16 Members, cross-party
• Main role is to sift EU Documents on behalf of the
House
• Committee considers briefing, analysis and
recommendations provided by Committee staff
• Reports on EU Documents it considers legally and/or
politically important
• Recommends the most significant for debate – in
European Committee or on the Floor. NB the
Government Whips decide when those debates take
place!

5. Departments’ Explanatory Memoranda
• Submitted within 10 working days of deposit of an EU
Document, and made publicly available
• Comprehensive, covering legal base, impact on UK
law, subsidiarity, policy and financial implications etc.
• Cabinet Office guidance
– An EM should be able to be read without additional
background documentation
– It should tell us what the Government’s view is on a
proposal, as well as about the proposal itself, and
its potential implications on the UK

6. Scrutiny Reserve Resolution
• Constrains Ministers
– from giving agreement to any proposal or decisions
not cleared by the Committee
– from giving agreement to any proposal or decision
awaiting agreement by the House
• Exceptions: routine or trivial; Committee’s agreement;
‘special reasons’
• Six-monthly reports from the Cabinet Office detailing
overrides
• Oral evidence sessions following overrides

7. European Committees
• Three committees: A, B and C
• Debate documents referred by the European Scrutiny
Committee
• Ad Hoc members, but ESC and relevant DSC expect to
be represented
• ESC member introduces the document and the reasons
for debate
• 1 hour of questions
• 1½ hours of debate

8. Document lists and debate packs
• For debates recommended by the Scrutiny Committee,
it is the responsibility of the relevant government
Department to compile the index of documents
relevant to the debate
• Debate packs are in 3 sections:
• Documents referred to in the Motion,
• Documents the Department considers relevant, and
• Documents the Scrutiny Committee considers relevant.
• Guidance available from the Scrutiny Committee

9. Useful resources
• European Scrutiny Committee’s website
Weekly Reports; Ministerial correspondence,
current inquiries and oral and written evidence
• European Business in the Commons Order Paper
Outstanding and scheduled debates
• Cabinet Office: European Memoranda
guidance for Departments
• EU Institutions and Legislation (short guide by ESC
staff)
• European scrutiny system in the Commons (short
guide by ESC staff)