House of Lords - Liaison

Select Committee on Liaison First Report

APPENDIX 1: PROPOSAL FROM LORD SOLEY FOR A SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS

This document looks at the suggestion for a select committee on intergovernmental organisations. It outlines current parliamentary oversight of intergovernmental organisations and suggests some work for a new sessional select committee looking at these organisations. It also suggests that the committee should not be limited to looking only at those bodies set up by treaty (which, in legal terms, an intergovernmental organisation must be), but should also scrutinise informal groupings of countries such as the G-8 which have no legal base.

Coverage of intergovernmental organisations by Parliament:

At the risk of stating the obvious, when the UK joins an intergovernmental organisation it is obliged to observe the rules of the organisation and to contribute towards its cost. The organisation then manages resources and formulates policy on behalf of the Government. There is thus a clear case for scrutiny of intergovernmental organisations by Parliament.

Parliament's right to be informed about the UK's involvement in international bodies established by treaty is enshrined in the Ponsonby rule. When the UK joins an organisation by treaty, or an organisation's powers are amended by treaty, the Houses are given the opportunity to see the details of the agreement. The Government lay before Parliament the text of treaties requiring ratification, acceptance, accession, approval or the mutual notification of completion procedures. These lie before Parliament for at least 21 sitting days before the government proceeds. Normally these texts are published as Command Papers and texts are also sent to the relevant Commons departmental committee.

But there are no formal proceedings in either House on the basis of these texts and there are few debates on the text of treaties before Parliament under the Ponsonby rule. By contrast, the European Union treaties and any amending treaty are enshrined in statute and are therefore subject to close scrutiny. Furthermore, European Union activities are covered extensively by committees in both Houses. Otherwise there is not a great deal of scrutiny of intergovernmental organisations to which the UK already belongs.

In the Lords there is very little select committee coverage of intergovernmental organisations. In theory the Economic Affairs Committee could conduct inquiries into the international banks and other economic bodies of which the UK is a member. Their approach, however, has focused on domestic issues or the international impact of policy and they have not reported on one of these organisations. The European Union Committee has produced some reports on intergovernmental organisations in which the UK is represented by the European Union—the World Trade Organisation is a good example of this.

In the Commons, scrutiny of intergovernmental organisations would most likely fall to the Foreign Affairs Committee, as the UK representation to most of these bodies comes through the FCO. Although their reports do make reference to intergovernmental organisations, they have not written a report specifically on an international organisation recently. A number of other Commons committees including Treasury, Defra, MoD and Dfid also have interests insofar as these departments provide the policy support to some of these organisations. Their reports on such organisations are, however, rare.

There is therefore little danger of a select committee charged with looking at intergovernmental organisations replicating the work of existing committees.

Areas of interest for a committee on intergovernmental organisations:

Given the wide range of these organisations there are a number of different approaches a committee charged with looking at them might take.

Inquiries into whether and how effectively an organisation is contributing to grand objectives—although such an inquiry could prove unwieldy and difficult to contain, useful contributions could nevertheless be made by a committee investigating the work an organisation has done to further the pursuit of goals or to respond to supranational challenges. A good example of this is the recent Commons Treasury Select Committee report Globalisation: The Role of the IMF[1];

Inquiries into a particular programme or policy being pursued by an organisation—this genre of inquiry could produce useful conclusions on the effectiveness of a particular programme operated by an international organisation. Such an inquiry would be of a smaller scale than an inquiry into an entire organisation and would be easier to manage. A good example of this type of inquiry is the Lords European Union report on the World Trade Organization's Doha Development Agenda The World Trade Organization: The role of the EU post Cancun[2];

Inquiries into whether and how the UK benefits from membership of these organisations—an inquiry along these lines would review the contribution made by the UK to an organisation and assess this against the benefits that the UK receives from it;

Inquiries into whether and how effectively an organisation reflects and furthers the policies of the UK Government—such an inquiry would assess the stated objectives of an organisation against UK Government policy and could make an assessment of whether the UK's interests would be furthered more effectively outside the organisation;

Inquiries into the internal administration of an organisation—although some of the larger organisations conduct such assessments rigorously themselves a committee could conduct an inquiry with a view to making recommendations to improve an organisation's efficiency and effectiveness;

Inquiries into whether the UK should join an organisation—to review the likely benefits that the UK would gain from membership of the organisation; and

Inquiries into whether a proposed new organisation should be set up—although governments seem to be of the settled view that the number of intergovernmental organisations is sufficient, a committee should be able to review proposals to found a new organisation. Such an inquiry would examine the cause, proposed objectives and proposed administrative structures of a new organisation and would make recommendations on these as well as review whether the UK should join.

Issues to be addressed:

The first issue that will need to be addressed is what effect the conclusions of the committee would have. While the UK government is used to taking note and responding to inquiries by select committees, it is likely that recommendations would have little effect on foreign governments. The impact on the organizations themselves is likely to indirect but the quality of the reports issued might well effect change. The current problems at the World Bank for example, on both management style and use of resources is an area where a high quality of report could have influenced the debate on the Bank.

The second issue relates to the inquiry focus of the Committee. Some Lords sessional committees including the Constitution Committee (which scrutinises bills passing through Parliament) and the EU committee (which scrutinises European documents) are grounded in the legislative programme—the one domestic, the other European. By contrast the proposed new committee, unless required to report on all treaties and modifications laid under the Ponsonby rule, would be free to set its own inquiry programme. The committee would therefore need to consider topics for inquiry very carefully to ensure that they were relevant to current developments.

Scope and possible terms of reference:

There could well be a role for a select committee charged with considering non-EU intergovernmental organisations. Reports from such a committee would be unlikely to overlap or repeat work conducted by other select committees of either House.

There would seem to be little benefit to be gained from seeking strongly to restrict the areas into which a committee could inquire. Inquiries both into intergovernmental organisations established by treaty and into less formal groupings of nations would seem to have equal merit.

However, given the number, size and broad range of activities undertaken by intergovernmental organisations it would seem sensible to exclude non-governmental organisations from the committee's remit. Hence the preference for the term intergovernmental organisation, rather than international organisation.

It would also be sensible to consider intergovernmental organisations thematically and in the context of specific contemporary issues of international policy rather than as individual institutions.

The only other restriction, given the existing coverage of it by committees of both Houses, should be to exclude the European Union from the remit.

The terms of reference for the committee could therefore be: "To consider how contemporary issues of international policy are addressed through UK membership of intergovernmental organisations (excluding the EU), including their impact and effectiveness and value for money."

June 2007

1 Ninth Report of Session 2005-06 (HC 875) Back