Liaison Officers
14.
Most Departments have a Liaison Officer as the main channel for communications between the Department and the Select Committee and its Clerk. The Clerks to the Select Committees will usually be glad to talk informally to Departments about their Committees' work and co-operate by, for example, providing the Departments most concerned with the confidential proofs of evidence taken by the Committee from other witnesses.
General Elections
15. Committees appointed by Standing Order continue to exist after dissolution of the House of Commons although they are technically inoperative. The point of contact for Departments continues to be the Clerk, whom Departments, usually through Liaison Officers, should keep supplied with information which would normally be supplied during the life of a Parliament. The Clerk will be the main source of initial background information for new Committee members. When re-established, the Committees may take up the topics selected by the previous Committee or resume partly completed investigations if they wish, although they are not obliged to do so. Lords Select Committees cease to exist, and are inoperative, after dissolution.
Charging Committees for Publications
16.
There will be many Departmental publications which will be of interest to a Committee, either in relation to a current or past enquiry or more generally. Departments should provide the Clerk of their Committees with a copy of such publications free of charge. If more copies are requested they should also be provided free of charge, though Liaison Officers should if necessary discuss with the Clerks the need for multiple copies of exceptionally expensive publications. No costs need fall on Departments in respect of extra copies of EMSO publications, since HMSO provides for the costs of supplying its publications to Parliament without charge (see paragraph 64(1)).
Committee Staff
17.
to
Responsibility for staffing support for Committees rests with the Clerk of the House, subject to the ultimate authority of the House of Commons Commission. The departmental Committees have, however, been given power to appoint specialist advisers either to supply information which is not readily available or to elucidate matters of complexity within the Committees' orders of reference. The Committees will thus be able, if they wish, retain the services of experts, not only to assist with particular enquiries but to advise on future enquiries or to deal with problems arising in the course of enquiries. In the Lords, responsibility for staffing rests with the Clerk of the Parliaments. Each Committee will normally be serviced by a Clerk and will have power to appoint Specialist Advisers. In March 1988 authority was also given for the European Communities Committees and Science and Technology Committee each to appoint one Specialist Committee Assistant for an experimental period of two years.
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