The public will have access to the deliberations of two House of Assembly committees, if United Bermuda Party MP John Barritt has his way.

The Shadow Minister for Legislative Affairs is also pushing for time limits on Members' speeches and other measures to improve the efficiency of the House.

Mr. Barritt will formally introduce his ideas, outlined in a pamphlet entitled "Proposed Amendments to the Rules of the House of Assembly'', when Parliament reopens tomorrow, by moving a motion held over from the last session.

Six House committees perform specialised work outside the House of Assembly.

Mr. Barritt wants to add a seventh -- the Business Committee, which would do for public bills what the Private Bills Committee does for the House.

And he says the Private Bills and Public Accounts Committees should do their work in the sunshine of public scrutiny.

This means that the Press and members of the public will be able to sit in on their meetings.

Mr. Barritt cites practice in other Commonwealth jurisdictions -- and the 1999 UK White Paper on the future of the Dependent Territories -- in his report.

"It is unusual that the work of such committees should be closed to the Press and the public,'' he wrote.

Bills submitted for the House's approval by parties outside Parliament -- such as companies -- are first scrutinised by the Private Bills Committee, saving the full House a lot of time.

Mr. Barritt's Business Committee would be composed of an equal number of Government and Opposition members of the House and the Speaker as chair.

"The one obvious advantage to such a committee is that it would clearly identify those items which were non-contentious and thus reduce the time that has to be spent in the House on such matters,'' reads the proposal.

Mr. Barritt is not suggesting the public have access to Business Committee deliberations.

Mr. Barritt's other proposals include imposing time limits for speeches in the House, enhancing the powers of the Public Accounts Committee and drastically reducing the notice required to question Government Ministers in Parliament.

He wants his Parliamentary colleagues to mandate the Rules and Privileges Committee to study the proposals and report back to the House.

John Barritt