House of Commons

Liaison Committee

Witness gender diversity

Second Report of Session 2017–19

Report, together with formal minutes relating to the report

Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 23 May 2018

HC 1033Published on 7 June 2018

by authority of the House of Commons

The Liaison Committee

The Liaison Committee is appointed to consider general matters relating to the work of select committees; to advise the House of Commons Commission on select committees; to choose select committee reports for debate in the House and to hear evidence from the Prime Minister on matters of public policy.

Current membership

Dr Sarah Wollaston MP (Conservative, Totnes) (Chair)

The Chairs of the following Select Committees are members of the Liaison Committee:

Administration—Sir Paul Beresford MP (Conservative, Mole Valley)

Backbench Business—Ian Mearns MP (Labour, Gateshead)

Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy—Rachel Reeves MP (Labour, Leeds West)

Defence—Dr Julian Lewis MP (Conservative, New Forest East)

Digital, Culture, Media and Sport—Damian Collins MP (Conservative, Folkestone and Hythe)

Education—Robert Halfon MP (Conservative, Harlow)

Environment, Food and Rural Affairs—Neil Parish MP (Conservative, Tiverton and Honiton)

Environmental Audit—Mary Creagh MP (Labour, Wakefield)

European Scrutiny—Sir William Cash MP (Conservative, Stone)

Exiting the European Union—Hilary Benn MP (Labour, Leeds Central)

Finance—Chris Bryant MP (Labour, Rhondda)

Foreign Affairs—Tom Tugendhat MP (Conservative, Tonbridge and Malling)

Health and Social Care—Dr Sarah Wollaston MP (Conservative, Totnes)

Home Affairs—Yvette Cooper MP (Labour, Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford)

Housing, Communities and Local Government—Mr Clive Betts MP (Labour, Sheffield South East)

Human Rights (Joint Committee)—Ms Harriet Harman (Labour, Camberwell and Peckham)

International Development—Stephen Twigg MP (Labour, Liverpool, West Derby)

International Trade—Angus Brendan MacNeil MP (Scottish National Party, Na h-Eileanan an Iar)

Justice—Robert Neill MP (Conservative, Bromley and Chislehurst)

Northern Ireland Affairs—Dr Andrew Murrison MP (Conservative, South West Wiltshire)

Petitions—Helen Jones MP (Labour, Warrington North)

Privileges—Sir Kevin Barron MP (Labour, Rother Valley)

Procedure—Mr Charles Walker MP (Conservative, Broxbourne)

Public Accounts—Meg Hillier MP (Labour (Co-op), Hackney South and Shoreditch)

Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs—Mr Bernard Jenkin MP (Conservative, Harwich and North Essex)

Regulatory Reform—Stephen McPartland MP (Conservative, Stevenage)

Science and Technology—Norman Lamb MP (Liberal Democrat, North Norfolk)

Scottish Affairs—Pete Wishart MP (Scottish National Party, Perth and North Perthshire)

Selection—Bill Wiggin MP (Conservative, North Herefordshire)

Standards—Sir Kevin Barron MP (Labour, Rother Valley)

Statutory Instruments—Derek Twigg MP (Labour, Halton)

Transport—Lilian Greenwood MP (Labour, Nottingham South)

Treasury—Nicky Morgan MP (Conservative, Loughborough)

Welsh Affairs—David T. C. Davies MP (Conservative, Monmouth)

Women and Equalities—Maria Miller MP (Conservative, Basingstoke)

Work and Pensions—Frank Field MP (Labour, Birkenhead)

Powers

The powers of the Committee are set out in House of Commons Standing Order No. 145. The Standing Orders are available on the Internet via www.parliament.uk.

Publications

Committee reports are published on the publications page of the Commitee website and in print by Order of the House.

Committee staff

The current staff of the Committee are Sarah Hartwell-Naguib (Clerk), Richard Dawson (Senior Committee Assistant), and Liz Parratt (Media Officer).

Contacts

All correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the Liaison Committee, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 5675; the Committee’s email address is liaisoncommittee@parliament.uk. Media inquiries should be addressed to Liz Parratt on 020 7219 1708.

1 Witness gender diversity

ContentsSummary 3

1 Background 4

Collection of diversity data since 2013 4

The Speaker’s letter of February 2018 4

2 Witness gender diversity 6

2017-18 witness gender diversity data 6

3 Discretionary and non-discretionary witnesses 9

Definitions 9

4 Promoting witness diversity at Committee level 11

5 Wider diversity monitoring in the 2017 Parliament 13

6 Conclusion and next steps 14

Annex: Gender diversity by Committee 15

Formal minutes 18

3 Witness gender diversity

SummaryGender balance on speaking panels has been a much-discussed topic, particularly on social media, over the last few years. Since the landmark study by the organisation Democratic Audit in 2013 the Liaison Committee has monitored the gender diversity of witnesses giving oral evidence to select committees.

This short report sets out the latest statistics for witness gender diversity in the 2017-19 Parliament. We distinguish between individuals that committees invite to come before them (discretionary witnesses) and people who appear because they hold a particular position, namely Ministers and key office holders, for example the heads of public bodies falling within the Committee’s remit (non-discretionary witnesses). We set out our progress in ensuring that discretionary witnesses are more gender-balanced. The Government must make progress in making public appointments more reflective of wider society to address the continued gender imbalance among non-discretionary witnesses. We will continue to monitor this.

We agree a convention that, for Committees represented on the Liaison Committee, other than in circumstances where there are compelling reasons for an all-male panel, a panel of three or more witnesses should normally include at least one woman, when the witnesses involved are not specific office-holders such as Ministers or heads of key public sector organisations falling within the remit of the Department the Committee is scrutinising. Our aim is that, by the end of this Parliament, at least 40% of discretionary witnesses should be female. We will publish witness gender statistics on our website regularly.

There are many types of oral evidence sessions. Some are an opportunity for robust questioning of Ministers or a Chief Executive. But they may also be the first chance for someone to tell their story publicly, or to contribute their direct experiences. Ensuring that those voices are representative of the gender balance and other forms of diversity in society forms an important part of wider work to ensure that select committees conduct effective scrutiny.

It is important to note that the statistics we produce here are only a partial picture of how we engage with the public. Our wider outreach sessions do not necessarily involve oral evidence, and our engagement using web fora and social media is similarly not included. But oral hearings remain one of our key evidence gathering tools. They are an opportunity for people to speak directly to us and have their views recorded as a “proceeding in Parliament”. That’s why ensuring the expertise, experience and diversity of our witnesses is so important.

Witness gender diversity 4

1 Background

Collection of diversity data since 2013

1. Information on witness gender diversity has been collected and published in various forms since 2013 but was included in the House’s Sessional Returns for the first time in July 2017 (for the 2016-17 Session). Information on the gender of witnesses by Committee and in total was published, categorised by “discretionary” and “non-discretionary” (non-discretionary witnesses being office holders such as Ministers, senior civil servants and chief executives of public bodies within the Committee’s remit).1

2. For that 2016-17 Session (May 2016 to May 2017) 895 of the 3,138 witnesses were women (29%), breaking down to 307 of 1,294 non-discretionary witnesses (24%) and 588 of 1,844 discretionary witnesses (32%). The original study by Democratic Audit in 2013 had found that over a one month period 76% of witnesses were male, and 24% female.2

3. The statistics for 2015-16 and 2016-17 (along with the latest data) are set out in Chapter 2, with Committee by Committee tables in the Annex.

4. Attention has focussed more closely on witness diversity in recent years, drawing parallels with wider social media movements calling out all-male speaking panels. Our work was drawn into sharper focus in 2016 when the Good Parliament Report, written by Professor Sarah Childs, was published. That report asked us, the Liaison Committee, to “require the House Service to provide comprehensive and systematic diversity data in respect of select committee witnesses at the end of each session, and establish annual rolling targets for witness representativeness.”

5. It concluded that “A rule change should be sought whereby any select committee witness panel of three or more must be sex/gender diverse if, by the end of the 2015 Parliament, select committees are not reaching a 40 percent sex/gender threshold amongst witnesses.”3

6. The House service has continued to supply us with that data. The previous Liaison Committee discussed progress made during the 2015-2017 Parliament and we returned to it when we were established after the 2017 general election.

The Speaker’s letter of February 2018

7. Following our first meeting in November 2017, at which both witness and Committee member diversity was discussed, our Chair wrote to the Speaker asking for the membership of select committees to be included as part of a forthcoming gender-sensitive parliament audit which will be conducted in association with the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

1 House of Commons Sessional Returns, 2016-17, HC 1, July 20172 Democratic Audit, Parliamentary select committees: who gives evidence? Richard Berry & Sean Kippin, 20133 The Good Parliament, Professor Sarah Childs, 2016

5 Witness gender diversity

8. Mr Speaker replied in February, confirming that this matter is indeed “currently within the draft scope for the audit”, which is expected to take place later this year with the fieldwork and research taking place by the end of the summer recess.4 Mr Speaker’s letter continues, taking up the issue of witness diversity:

May I take this opportunity to raise a further related issue with you in your capacity as Chair of the Liaison Committee? The Reference Group had some early correspondence with your predecessor regarding recommendation 14 and 28 of the report, aimed at monitoring and increasing the diversity of select committee witnesses. Mr Tyrie informed us of the pilot study run by the Committee Office in 2016 and asked the Clerks to make the results available to us.

We subsequently had a good discussion of the issues in March [2017] on the basis of a paper from the Committee Office and agreed to write to the Liaison Committee with our suggestions, but the election was called before we were able to do so. I am therefore delighted now to be in a position to follow this up with you, who I know have set a strong example through your chairmanship of the Health Committee.

Specifically, we would like the Liaison Committee to consider establishing a convention with respect to the diversity of discretionary witnesses. We were, for example, attracted to the idea that a panel of three or more witnesses should normally include representatives from both genders.

We would also strongly support select committees in their efforts to increase the diversity of witnesses in the widest sense and hope that the convention might eventually be extended beyond gender, but consider that gender would be the best place to start. I hope you will have an early opportunity to discuss this with your colleagues on the Liaison Committee and respond with your thoughts.

4 The Commission decided its approach to the Audit in February (Commission decisions, 26 February 2018, https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/other-committees/house-of-commons-commission/news-parliament-2017/decisions-26-february-201802281111111/)

Witness gender diversity 6

2 Witness gender diversity

2017-18 witness gender diversity data

9. In responding to Mr Speaker we were aware of much work that has been done at Committee level. Committee teams were asked to prepare witness gender diversity statistics for the current session up to the end of March 2018 (in effect the six months October 2017-March 2018).

10. We discuss complexities around monitoring wider forms of diversity later in this report. It is important to note that the data we use is imperfect in that it does not involve gender self-declaration but rather a judgement by the teams involved based on their liaison with witnesses. Taking those limitations as given under the current system, we have seen positive change. The proportion of female discretionary witnesses has changed from 29% in 2015-2016 to 37% in the six months to March 2018, marking a continuation of an improving trend since that first Democratic Audit study.

Gender diversity since the 2015-16 Session

Total 28% 29%

33%

Non-discretionary 26% 24%

27%

Discretionary 29% 32% 37%

0%

50%

100%

2015-16 2016-17 2017-19

7 Witness gender diversity

Gender diversity in the 2015-16 Session

35%

38%

15%

12%

2015-16Total numberof witnesses:

2,648

TotalOverall 2,648 733 28% 1,915 72%Non-discretionary 1,240 327 26% 913 74%Discretionary 1,408 406 29% 1,002 71%

Women Men

Gender diversity in the 2016-17 Session

31%

40%

19%

10%

2016-17Total numberof witnesses:

3,138

TotalOverall 3,138 895 29% 2,243 71%Non-discretionary 1,294 307 24% 987 76%Discretionary 1,844 588 32% 1,256 68%

Women Men

Witness gender diversity 8

Gender diversity in the 2017-19 Session to end March 2018

28%

39%

23%

10%

2017-19Total numberof witnesses:

2,269

TotalOverall 2,269 754 33% 1,515 67%Non-discretionary 860 236 27% 624 73%Discretionary 1,409 518 37% 891 63%

Women Men

11. In the remainder of this Report we consider:

• the definition of discretionary and non-discretionary witnesses

• the steps that have been taken at Committee level to promote witness diversity

• further recommendations for change, including responding to the Speaker’s proposal that there should be a convention relating to witness gender diversity.

9 Witness gender diversity

3 Discretionary and non-discretionary witnesses

Definitions

12. From the early days of monitoring witnesses, there has been a view that we need to distinguish between witnesses that committees choose and people who appear because they hold a particular position, namely Ministers and “key office holders”, for example the heads of public bodies falling within the Committee’s remit. We have therefore published the data in total and with these two witness categories disaggregated. While we believe this distinction holds value, we note that it would not be necessary if the gender balance of Ministers and such office holders reflected that of society.

13. We are particularly interested in what it shows in terms of the public appointments process. The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC) has closely monitored developments at government level through its scrutiny of the Grimstone Review, which was published in March 2016. This included a recommendation that Diversity should be added to the list of “Public Appointment Principles”, and that the Commissioner for Public Appointments should be “a powerful advocate for diversity” in appointments.5

14. PACAC published a Report on the Review in July 2016 (that welcomed its promotion of increasing the diversity of candidates, but was otherwise very critical of Sir Gerry’s proposals for threatening to “undermine the entire basis of independent appointments” made on the basis of merit)6 and a follow-up Report in March 2017 which was highly critical of the Government’s response.7 We held an informal meeting with the Commissioner of Public Appointments, Peter Riddell, at our meeting in February 2018 to discuss these issues, including the diversity of public appointments and select committee pre-appointment hearings, which is currently the subject of a separate inquiry by PACAC.

15. The Government’s response to the PACAC report noted that there had been some progress in terms of the gender diversity of public appointments, with 48% of new appointments made to women in 2015-16.8 A ten-point Public Appointments Diversity Action Plan was published in December 2017, which noted that:

“the Centre for Public Appointments has undertaken a review of the diversity of the 5,500 public appointees currently in post. This has established that: 43% of appointments are held by women; and 10% are held by ethnic minorities.”

5 Gerry Grimstone, Better Public Appointments: A Review of the Public Appointments Process, Cabinet Office, March 2016, para 3.5 and para 4.10

6 PACAC, Better Public Appointments? The Grimstone Review of Public Appointments, Third Report of Session 2016-17, HC 495, para 85

7 PACAC, Better Public Appointments? Follow-up and Government Response to the Committee’s Third Report, Eleventh Report of Session 2016-17, HC 1062

8 PACAC, Better Public Appointments? Follow-up and Government Response to the Committee’s Third Report, Government response, Appendix 1, page 7

Witness gender diversity 10

The Action Plan continues:

“Our ambition is that by 2022, 50% of all public appointees should be female and that 14% of appointments should be from ethnic minorities, bringing their representation in line with the resident population in England and Wales. Our record on attracting disabled people into public appointments is weak and we plan further work as a matter of urgency to better understand the barriers and what is needed to address these.”9

16. We share the view of the Government and the Commissioner that further progress needs to be made. As Mr Riddell put it in July 2017:10

“the level of more diverse appointments to chairs of public bodies remains disappointingly low: only 28% for women, 5.2% for BAME candidates and less than 3% for those declaring a disability. This means that out of 136 appointments and reappointments of chairs, just seven were BAME applicants and three were those declaring a disability.”

17. We are keenly aware of this mixed picture at Committee level, as it directly affects the gender composition of our non-discretionary witnesses. Alex Chisholm, permanent secretary at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, for example, recently provided evidence to the BEIS Committee showing that of the 36 public bodies in partnership with BEIS that have chief executives, only seven are led by women.11

18. In his evidence to the PACAC inquiry into pre-appointment hearings Mr Riddell suggested that most of the effort in improving the diversity of appointments needs to be made by departments in increasing the diversity of applicants. However, he also identified the important leadership role that Select Committees can play in reinforcing to Ministers and departments the importance they place on increasing the diversity of public appointments.12

9 Centre for Public Appointments, Public Appointments Diversity Action Plan, December 2017 page 410 Peter Riddell, Guardian Public Leaders Network, 5 July 201711 Letter from the Permanent Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to

the Chair of the BEIS Committee, April 2018 12 Written Evidence from the Commissioner for Public Appointments to the PACAC inquiry into Pre-Appointment

Hearings, HC 909, 2017–19, para 9

11 Witness gender diversity

4 Promoting witness diversity at Committee level

19. Committees have adopted different approaches to increasing witness diversity. Examples of steps taken include:

• Adding statements on witness diversity to websites and communications with witnesses. For example: The Committee values diversity and seeks to ensure this where possible. We aim to have diverse panels of witnesses and therefore ask you to bear this in mind when choosing a representative;

• Offering extra places on panels to organisations if they can provide a representative of both genders;

• Using broader outreach events, social media and web fora to draw in a wider range of evidence and as a way of identifying potential oral evidence witnesses from broader backgrounds; and

• identifying potential witnesses in an organisation just below the top management tier (for example Finance or Operations Directors) and inviting them rather than the Chief Executive.

20. At the same time the House service has made it easier for witnesses to claim expenses for caring responsibilities arising from giving evidence and to access emergency carer cover. The witness expenses budget has been increased to ensure that the costs of witness travel and witness accommodation can be covered where necessary.

21. In terms of non-financial support, many committee teams specifically identify witnesses giving oral evidence for the first time and offer them additional advice and guidance, such as an advance visit to the Committee room.

22. Committee teams continue to share good practice and ideas with each other and with other organisations. The Scottish Parliament recently published a research paper by Hugh Bochel, Professor of Public Policy at the University of Lincoln and researcher Anouk Berthier on Committee witnesses: gender and representation.13 The proportion of female witnesses in 2016-17, excluding the Scottish Government was 38.4%, markedly higher than in the House of Commons.

23. Several Commons staff were interviewed as part of the preparation of that Report, which notes that the Westminster Parliament and the House of Commons in particular is “the parliament for which most information is available on committee witnesses.”

24. The report proposes a series of possible actions to be taken by the Scottish Parliament which are also of interest to our Committee Office. These include:

• Producing guidance for committees on the processes of selecting witnesses and issuing calls for written evidence;

• Producing guidance for organisations providing witnesses to committees;

13 Committee witnesses: gender and representation, Hugh Bochel and Anouk Berthier, Scottish Parliament Information Centre Briefing SB 18-16

Witness gender diversity 12

• Improving (online) access to documentation for (particularly first-time) witnesses;

• Improving support for (first-time) witnesses;

• Careful assessment of the representativeness of ‘representative’ bodies;

• Consistent recording of the gender (and, potentially, other protected characteristics) of oral witnesses to committees;

• Ensuring that there is sufficient time in each enquiry, where possible, for written evidence to be considered before the selection of invitees to give oral evidence; and

• Exploring the potential benefits of emerging technology as a tool to increase witness diversity.

25. These conclusions, and wider evaluation of the work done so far by Committee teams, are currently being considered by Anna Connell-Smith, Committee Specialist on the Education Committee, who is the current witness diversity champion and leads on the staff side for policy development and exchanging experience and good practice.

13 Witness gender diversity

5 Wider diversity monitoring in the 2017 Parliament

26. We have already noted some of the weaknesses that apply to our method of data collection (in that it does not involve witnesses being able to declare their gender). The letter from Mr Speaker states that the Reference Group strongly supports “select committees in their efforts to increase the diversity of witnesses in the widest sense and hope that the convention might eventually be extended beyond gender, but consider that gender would be the best place to start.”

27. Several committees are already monitoring the diversity of their witnesses through short surveys. These are completed voluntarily after evidence sessions and ask witnesses for information on their gender identity, age, disability, ethnic background, religion or belief and sexual orientation. A pilot exercise has been concluded and an evaluation is currently underway, working with the House’s diversity and inclusion team.

Witness gender diversity 14

6 Conclusion and next steps28. We agree that, for Committees represented on the Liaison Committee, other than in circumstances where there are compelling reasons for an all-male panel, a panel of three or more witnesses should normally include at least one woman, when the witnesses involved are not specific office-holders such as Ministers or heads of key public sector organisations falling within the remit of the Department the Committee is scrutinising.

29. Our aim is that, by the end of this Parliament, at least 40% of discretionary witnesses should be female.

30. We will be publishing updated statistics on our website in between publication of the Sessional Returns to show progress. The next set of statistics will cover the period April - November 2018 and will be published in December 2018.

15 Witness gender diversity

Annex: Gender diversity by CommitteeGender diversity by Committee in 2015-16

12% 13% 14% 15% 17% 18% 19% 20% 20% 20% 20% 21% 21% 22% 23% 23% 24% 26% 28% 28% 32% 33% 33% 34% 40% 40% 43% 44% 48%69%

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

All witnesses 2015-16: percentage of females

Men Women

0% 8% 10% 12% 13% 14% 17% 17% 18% 18% 18% 20% 21% 23% 23% 24% 25% 26% 26% 26% 28% 29% 30% 32% 35% 37%50% 50%

68%

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

Non-discretionary witnesses 2015-16: percentage of females

Men Women

0% 7% 11% 14% 14% 16% 16% 16% 17% 18% 19% 22% 22% 23% 25% 26% 27% 27% 29% 30% 34% 37% 38% 43% 45% 47% 48% 55% 58%71%

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

Discretionary witnesses 2015-16: percentage of females

Men Women

Witness gender diversity 16

Gender diversity by Committee 2016-17

10% 10% 11% 13% 13% 19% 20% 21% 21% 23% 25% 25% 25% 26% 28% 28% 30% 31% 34% 35% 35% 35% 35% 39% 43% 44% 50% 50% 52% 60%

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

All witnesses 2016-17: percentage of females

Men Women

0% 0% 9% 12% 12% 16% 16% 16% 17% 17% 18% 20% 21% 22% 23% 25% 25% 26% 26% 27% 31% 31% 33% 33% 34% 36% 44% 50%63%

100%

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

Non-discretionary witnesses 2016-17: percentage of females

Men Women

7% 10% 12% 12% 18% 19% 20% 22% 25% 26% 26% 27% 28% 29% 29% 30% 33% 33% 38% 39% 40% 41% 41% 42% 47% 49% 50% 50% 50%63%

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

Discretionary witnesses 2016-17: percentage of females

Men Women

17 Witness gender diversity

Gender diversity by Committee 2017-19

8% 17% 20% 20% 21% 21% 24% 25% 25% 25% 25% 26% 29% 31% 32% 32% 33% 33% 37% 38% 38% 40% 40% 42% 43% 44% 44% 44% 45% 47% 47%67%

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

All witnesses 2017-19: percentage of females

Men Women

0% 0% 0% 0%11% 13% 16% 17% 18% 19% 19% 20% 20% 21% 22% 25% 25% 25% 27% 30% 30% 30% 31% 33% 37% 38% 44% 52% 56% 60%

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

Non-discretionary witnesses 2017-19: percentage of females

Men Women

8%21% 22% 23% 23% 25% 29% 29% 31% 33% 33% 33% 33% 34% 34% 34% 35% 38% 39% 41% 42% 44% 44% 47% 47% 50% 50% 50% 52%

63%75%

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

Discretionary witnesses 2017-19: percentage of females

Men Women

Witness gender diversity 18

Formal minutesWednesday 23 May 2018

Members present:

Dr Sarah Wollaston, in the Chair

Hilary Benn Dr Julian LewisMr Clive Betts Maria MillerChris Bryant Nicky MorganSir William Cash Dr Andrew MurrisonYvette Cooper Robert NeillLillian Greenwood Neil ParishMs Harriet Harman Rachel ReevesMeg Hillier Derek TwiggMr Bernard Jenkin Stephen TwiggNorman Lamb Bill Wiggin

Draft report (Witness gender diversity), proposed by the Chair, brought up and read.

Ordered, That the draft Report be read a second time, paragraph by paragraph.

Paragraphs 1 to 30 read and agreed to.

Annex agreed to.

Summary agreed to.

Resolved, That the Report be the Second Report of the Committee to the House.

Ordered, That the Chair make the Report to the House.

Ordered, That embargoed copies of the Report be made available, in accordance with the provisions of Standing Order No. 134.

[Adjourned till Wednesday 20 June at 6.00 p.m.