TNAG-0433-FCO40-498-Interest-of-UK-parliamentary-groups-in-Hong-Kong-affairs-1974 — Page 6

Committee's Sub-Committee on Trade & Industry can only enquire into the management of the capital expenditure

of the nationalised corporations because that is the only part of their expenditure which is classed as

public expenditure.), The Select Committee on the Nationalised Industries is a "watchdog" Committee and

so unusual, since it is not purely a committee of

enquiry as most Select Committees are. This Committee s

special role reflects the constitutional relationship

between the industries and Ministers: Ministers are

responsible for the nationalised industries but their

affairs are never debated in Parliament except when a

Select Committee report on a particular industry is

chosen for debate.

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 responsi

bility cannot be shared with any Select Committee.

The task of the 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 UK

dependencies would differ constitutionally from the

Nationalised Industries' Committee the most important difference being that the Foreign and Commonwealth

/Secretary

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