The Intergovernmental Organisations Select Committee will publish its first report tomorrow. The report deals with the threat of infectious diseases and the intergovernmental organisations ability to deal with them.
Meanwhile I have been very frustrated because the Liaison Committee which decides what select committees should exist and in what form met and agreed that the Intergovernmental Committee should not continue in its present form and quite possible not continue at all! This would be a serious mistake in my view and in the view of many members of the House who believe we need a committee to look at the way your money is spent on intergovernmental organisations. The following brief debate on the Liaison Committees report gives an example of that in the form of the cost to the UK of peacekeeping operations.
Billions of pounds are spent by the UK- quite rightly in my opinion – on the UN, the World bank, the IMF and others but we do not give sufficient attention to the effectiveness of this investment. Follow this link to read my contribution to the argument and watch this space for further developments! I will return to this.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200708/ldhansrd/text/80716-0002.htm#08071684000007
Expenses seem to be on everybody’s minds but, as you allude to, what do we (not necessarily contributors alone) get for our money?
I’m not going to get into arguments about peacekeeping specifically but I do question the costs of setting up a committee to look at what other committees do. This goes back to a previous discussion with Lord Norton regarding the amount of work being conducted informally over a cuppa. It happens, a cuppa is cheap, so it may be the answer lies with who you sit next to on a ‘planned’ summer trip.
However, I congratulate your efforts on reducing expenses by utilising modern facilities such as video conferencing.