Ad hoc Committees

21.  Animals in Scientific Procedures. This ad hoc Committee, under the Chairmanship of Lord Smith of Clifton, was appointed in March 2001.

22.  Stem Cell Research. This additional ad hoc Committee was set up in January when the House, in approving the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Research Purposes) Regulations 2000, agreed to an amendment calling on the Government to support the appointment of a select committee to report on the issues connected with human cloning and stem cell research and to review the Regulations following the Committee's report. This Committee, which is chaired by the Bishop of Oxford, will report by the end of 2001.

23.  Chinook Helicopter ZD576. In March 2001, the House agreed to a motion moved by Lord Chalfont ìThat, .... it is desirable that the Liaison Committee should consider the appointment of a select committee to consider all the circumstances surrounding the crash of Chinook Helicopter ZD576 on 2nd June 1994î. After careful consideration at several meetings, the Liaison Committee recommended that a select committee should not be appointed on the grounds that select committees are not equipped to carry out quasi-judicial functions and that the appointment of a committee would set a precedent for referring to committees other alleged miscarriages of justice which had not been remedied through the courts. However, this conclusion was rejected by the House on a division on 30 April and the Select Committee was set up at the beginning of the new Parliament[3].