CONFIDENTIAL
4.
The special case of the nationalised industries apart, it is generally accepted that in the last analysis it is for the responsible Minister to take policy decisions and it is he who is responsible for them to Parliament as a whole. That ultimate responsibility cannot be shared with any Select Committee.
The
task of a Select Committee is to ensure that Parliament has the
information necessary for the examination of Government's plans and priorities and to assist in the scrutiny of those plans and priorities and in checking on their execution. While it may be expected to influence future policy, it is not a Select Committee's task to make policy.
5. Mr Ennals's proposal for a Select Committee to watch over the final "decolonisation" of the United Kingdom dependencies would differ constitutionally from the Nationalised Industries' Committee - the most important difference being that the Foreign & Commonwealth Secretary is directly responsible to Parliament for the administration of the dependent territories and his policies can be and are debated upon the floor of the House. There is thus no need to establish a Select Committee in order to .
debate policy toward, or the administration of, any dependent
territory.
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6. However, it can' plausibly be argued that, when the Foreign & Commonwealth Secretary has informed Parliament eg of his plans for bringing certain dependent territories to independence over a period of time, the House would the reafter be better informed on progress in the carrying out of these policies, and better equipped eventually to debate proposals for independence, if Mr Ennals's proposed Select Committee were in existence. It would, of course, be important that the Committee should attract as members persons with not only an interest in, but some know- ledge of, colonial administration and conditions in the depend- encies generally. Foreign & Commonwealth Office Ministers would certainly have to devote additional time to giving evidence before such a Select Committee, but that, should ensure that the Committee's Reports and recommendations would be based upon the most 'authentic information and guidance obtainable.
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CONFIDENTIAL 2
17.