English votes plan 'must be piloted say MPs'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34567588

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Plans to give MPs from English seats an effective veto on bills applying to England only must be "piloted" before being brought in, a report argues.

The Commons Procedure Committee said so-called "English Votes for English laws" should be tried out on selected legislation over the next year.

Existing plans, it said, risked proving "burdensome" and should be simplified.

But it agreed the shake-up could be achieved via changes to procedures not a new law, a view opposed by the SNP.

However, the two SNP members of the cross-party committee - Patricia Gibson and Patrick Grady - declined to endorse its report.

In response to the granting of further powers to the Scottish Parliament, the government wants to change Commons rules known as standing orders to give MPs from English constituencies a "decisive say" on bills that apply solely to England.

'Substantial change'

It has proposed an additional "parliamentary stage" to allow English MPs to scrutinise legislation without the involvement of Scottish MPs, saying it is a matter of fairness.

England's MPs would be asked to accept or veto legislation only affecting England before it passed to a vote of all UK MPs at its third and final reading in the Commons.

This means England's MPs could block any unwanted policies from being introduced in England - but could not force proposals through unless the whole House agreed. A similar process would be used where matters covered only England and Wales - with Welsh MPs included.

West Lothian Question

Giving its verdict on the proposals, the cross-party procedure committee, which has a Conservative majority, said they represented a "substantial change" to the House of Commons' working procedures and should not be adopted on a blanket basis.

Instead, it said they should be trialled on a small number of bills and statutory instruments between now and next May to see how they worked, with MPs able to debate and vote on when the new procedures should apply on a case-by-case basis.

It has recommend a number of amendments to the plans, including requiring relevant legislation to gain the approval of English MPs only, as well as all MPs, at report stage before it can progress to third reading.

'Speaker's discretion'

Should there be a disagreement between English MPs and the whole House, it is arguing a legislative grand committee should be set up to examine the legislation, with all MPs entitled to speak.

The report says there should also be safeguards to ensure the Speaker of the House of Commons, who under the proposals would have the authority to determine whether a bill applies only to England, is not "drawn into political argument".

While the Speaker should have "discretion" to exercise his judgement on individual bills, the committee says there is a case for establishing and publishing a protocol for how the "certification" process should work.

Charles Walker, the Conservative MP who chairs the committee, said the current proposals were "over-engineered" and should be streamlined, while still giving English MPs or English and Welsh MPs the opportunity to vote on matters affecting them only.

"The evidence we received demonstrated to us that the government's policy should be implemented through changes to the House's procedures through standing orders rather than primary legislation," he said.

"Legal challenges to the decisions of the Speaker and to the procedures of the House cannot be ruled out. It is important that legislation be drafted as clearly as possible to meet the tests for certifying England-only legislation."

While all members of the committee made a "positive and collaborative contribution" to the preparation of the report, he noted: "At the substantive vote to adopt the report....we were unable to secure the support of the two committee members from the SNP".