The panel chairmen have lodged a proposition that would guarantee them access to Law Officers’ advice to ministers and could set them on a collision course with the Council of Ministers.
Access to legal advice has been a sticking point since before ministerial government formally began when one of the shadow panels raised the issue – the panels say they need it to do their job properly, but ministers and the Attorney General have been reluctant to hand it over for fear of compromising their legal positions.
If the Scrutiny codes of practice, lodged yesterday, are agreed by the House, legal advice could only be withheld from scrutiny panels in exceptional circumstances.
Any advice given to the panels would be treated as confidential, but if a dispute over ‘exceptional circumstances’ arose, the panel, the minister and the Law Officers would meet in private to consider the issue.
