The Cayman Islands Constitution Order 2009

Standing Orders and committees

71.—(1) Subject to this Constitution, the Legislative Assembly may from time to time make, amend and revoke Standing Orders for the regulation and orderly conduct of its own proceedings and the dispatch of business, and for the passing, intituling and numbering of Bills and for their presentation to the Governor for assent; but no such Standing Orders or amendment or revocation of them shall have effect unless they have been approved by the Governor.

(2) Standing Orders must provide for fair procedures, adequate notice of Bills and motions, and a sufficient opportunity for members of the Legislative Assembly (including opposition members) to speak and otherwise participate in the proceedings of the Assembly.

(3) Standing Orders shall not be suspended or revoked without good reason.

(4) In any matter not provided for in Standing Orders, resort shall be had to the usage and practice of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, which shall be followed as far as the same may be applicable to the Legislative Assembly and not inconsistent with Standing Orders nor with the practice of the Assembly.

(5) In cases of doubt, Standing Orders shall be interpreted in the light of the relevant usage and practice of the House of Commons, but no restriction which the House of Commons has introduced by standing order after the making of such Standing Orders shall be deemed to extend to the Legislative Assembly or its members until the Assembly has by Standing Orders provided for such restriction.

(6) Standing Orders shall make provision for the establishment of a Finance Committee of the Legislative Assembly to consider in detail the estimates of revenue and expenditure of the Cayman Islands laid before the Assembly by the Minister responsible for finance, and to examine and consider all financial Bills and such other matters relating to the finances of the Cayman Islands as may from time to time be referred to it by the Assembly and to report on them to the Assembly.

(7) The Finance Committee shall consist of all the elected members of the Legislative Assembly and shall be chaired by the Minister responsible for finance.

(8) Standing Orders may also establish one or more other standing committees of the Legislative Assembly, each of which may be charged with responsibility for monitoring the conduct of business of the Government for which responsibility has been assigned to a Minister under section 54.

(9) The composition of all such standing committees shall, so far as possible, reflect proportionately the numerical strength of all political parties or groups making up the elected membership of the Legislative Assembly.

(10) Any standing committee so established shall have power to summon any Minister, the Deputy Governor, the Attorney General or any public officer of a department of Government for which a Minister is responsible to appear before it, and to require any Minister or other person so summoned to answer questions and provide information about the conduct of business of the Government by the Minister or department concerned or, as the case may be, by the Deputy Governor or the Attorney General, and to report on its activities to the Legislative Assembly.