As ConservativeHome reports, Bill Cash has been elected unopposed as Chairman of the European Scrutiny Committee.
This is great news. I’ve already commented on the qualities and experience that he will bring to the role. These will prove essential in chairing a committee that I estimate already on average has to review each flagged EU document put before it in around four minutes (and even that is assuming that large numbers continue to go through on the nod).
To appreciate the scale of the task at hand, just look at the volume of laws sent to the Commons in the period since the election was called; a backlog which no committee has yet had the chance to review.
Crucially, Bill’s democratic credentials are solid. The system of scrutiny currently works badly, and I suspect the Member for Stone will have suggestions on how to improve matters, just as David Cameron has said he wants to see happen. A starter might be to tear away the veil of obscurantism. For too long the committee was obliged under its former chairman to sit in camera. The only rationale for that was shame at the way a bust system was being run, and at the antics of ministers in Brussels. Bill’s first act should be to allow the public to sit in on the sessions, so they can see for themselves how Britain’s laws were and are being made.
