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soon as possible: only in exceptional circumstances should
the delay in replying be allowed to exceed 6 months.
44.
The Government's considered reply to the specific recommendations
of a Committee is normally presented as a Command paper. This
ensures that, subject to the point in the preceding paragraph, the
Government can control the timing of its publication. Where
several Departments are concerned, the Command paper may be issued
either by the principal Minister concerned, or by several Ministers
acting jointly, each Department contributing a separate section
of the paper.
Replies to Reports of the Public Accounts Committee
are always collated and presented by the Treasury. Advance copies
of any Command paper in reply to a Select Committee Report should be made available to the Committee concerned (and to the Press)
48 hours before publication. This is the counterpart of the
arrangement described in paragraph 37 above.
45.
Departments are not, however, obliged to use the Command
paper form of reply to a Select Committee, particularly for
minor recommendations.
Departments may address Committees in the
form of memoranda, or a Minister may wish to address the Chairman
of a Committee by letter if the subject does not appear to merit
a more formal treatment. In either of these cases, however, the
reply becomes evidence submitted to the Committee, which the
Committee may publish to suit its own convenience and, if desired, with its own further comments on the Government's reply. Replies
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