Government responses to parliamentary committee reports

What a government response is

Committees in most parliaments end an inquiry with a report and a list of recommendations. The government then replies in a document that becomes part of the parliamentary record. UK Cabinet Office guidance says the response must in all circumstances be made first to Parliament, either to the House itself or to the committee ¹.

The guidance lists three usual forms: a Command Paper presented to Parliament, a memorandum or letter to the committee chair, or an oral statement ¹. A Command Paper may be paired with an oral or written ministerial statement ¹. The guidance adds that it is long-standing convention that committee recommendations should not get snap responses without detailed government assessment ¹.

Deadlines compared

Each parliament sets its own clock. Some deadlines are in standing orders, some in resolutions and some in government guidance.

United Kingdom

The Cabinet Office guidance, known as the Osmotherly Rules, says departments should aim to give the considered response to both Commons and Lords select committee reports within two months of publication ¹. If a response will take longer, the department should write to the committee with reasons and a likely timetable ¹. Only in exceptional circumstances should a response be deferred for more than six months after publication ¹.

A department can give an interim response within the set period and a fuller one later ¹. If the deadline falls in the summer recess, the committee may prefer publication to be held over until Parliament returns ¹.

The Public Accounts Committee follows its own route. Government departments respond to its reports through a Treasury Minute, published on GOV.UK and then on the committee's website ⁵. HM Treasury's collection holds Treasury Minutes published since 2010 ⁶.

Canada

Standing Order 109 of the House of Commons says that within 120 days of the presentation of a report from a standing or special committee, the government shall table a response if the committee requests one ². Once a response has been requested, no motion to concur in the report may be proposed until the response is tabled or the 120 days run out ².

Australia

The Senate requires government responses to committee reports within three months of tabling ³. Twice a year the President of the Senate reports on the status of responses to Senate and joint committee reports ³.

A Parliamentary Library FlagPost of 14 March 2023 traced the rule to a resolution of 14 March 1973 covering standing and select committee reports that require action ⁴. It said the Senate agreed in 1979 that the President should identify where the government had not responded in time ⁴. In 1981 the report was a list of nine reports not answered in time ⁴. In 2022 the Senate tabled 149 committee reports, with about half included in the President's report ⁴. The FlagPost named the 2002 Report on a Certain Maritime Incident as the oldest report recorded without a government response ⁴.