recommended that Departments should normally be required to publish their observations on Select Committee Reports within 2 months of publication of the Reports. The Committee proposed that, in the event of insuperable difficulties which make this impracticable, an interim set of observations should be produced within 2 months, and within every 2 month period thereafter.
58.
Previous Government statements have drawn attention to the practical difficulties there would be in giving a firm undertaking to reply in all such cases within this timescale. It has been pointed out that Committee Reports tend to cover issues which require consideration in some depth, and consultations within and outside Departments are frequently necessary before a substantive reply can be provided. Departments should however do their best to meet the 2-month timetable recommended by the Procedure Committee. Where this is not possible, the reply should certainly be provided within 6 months and letters should go to the Committee before the expiry of the 2-month period explaining why the earlier deadline cannot be met.
59.
The Government's considered reply to the specific reccomendations of a Committee is frequently presented as a Contand Paper. Departments are reminded that the Secretary of the Cabinet should be given notice of impending Command Papers at least one month before the final proof of the publication is required, in order that adequate arrangements can be made for the appropriate Ministerial Committee and (if necessary) the Cabinet to clear the draft. Even if the draft of a Command Paper has been considered by a Ministerial Committee, it is customary to circulate the paper to the Cabinet for information at the draft or CFR stage. 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. Where a Select Committee's recommendations concern another public body, that body may reply direct to the Committee, or its reply may be annexed to the Government's. 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, and Committees may find it helpful to be advised informally, where possible, that a reply is imminent. This is the counterpart of the arrangement described in paragraph 51 above.
60..
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, or answers to Parliamentary Question may be used. In the first 2 cases, however, the reply becomes
evidence submitted to the Committee, which the Committee may publish if it so decides and, if desired, with its own further comments on the Government's reply. Replies to reports by Committees which have not been re-appointed can take the form of Command Papers, Ministerial statements, or answers to Parliamentary Questions, etc. There is no obligation to reply to every point made by a Committee: some may be obiter dicta: some may not be addressed to the Government but to the House (eg certain recommendations of the Procedure Committee): some may be conveniently covered in one omnibus comment. In the period between a Committee's report and the formal Government reply, there need be no constraint on Departments taking action on any recommendation made by the Committee. However, when such action is taken the Committee
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