A revised and rewritten set of rules for the House of Assembly will go before MPs this summer — when they could be asked to approve the opening up of parliamentary committees.

Deputy Speaker Dame Jennifer Smith and Shadow Legislative Reform Minister John Barritt have been working together to review the procedures in the Lower Chamber after embarking on the cross-party project last year.

Shernette Wolffe, clerk to the legislature, told this newspaper yesterday: "The subcommittee of the Rules and Privileges Committee has reviewed the rules and they will be considered by the committee proper.

"Subsequently, a report will be presented to the House for members' consideration before the summer recess."

The news comes as The Royal Gazette celebrates Sunshine Week — an initiative promoting dialogue about transparency and open government.

Mr. Barritt said one of the things he and former Premier Dame Jennifer have looked at is whether committees should open their doors to the public — a move the Opposition MP supports and which is one of the aims of our A Right To Know: Giving People Power campaign.

Mr. Barritt told this newspaper: "We have been charged with reviewing and modernising our rules. Opening up committees forms part of that review."

The review of the standing orders was launched on February 27 last year when the Rules and Privileges Committee agreed that the rules of the House needing updating, amending and revising and that a subcommittee should "investigate proposed changes and report back to the body proper".

Mr. Barritt said he and Dame Jennifer were still in the review and drafting stages, as the breadth and depth of the work was more than had been anticipated. "But progress is being made," he added.

The UBP politician said taxpayers ought to be optimistic about the possibility of committees — including the crucial Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which scrutinises public spending — opening up.

"I would point to the recent decision to have the meetings of the Joint Select Committee on Education open and not private," he said. "This was a decision of the Speaker's after consultation with the entire Rules and Privileges Committee, but I was pleased when the committee decided in favour across party lines, and promptly, after some discussion but with very little disagreement, as I recall."

Mr. Barritt said the review included looking at the rules in other jurisdictions, particularly a number of provinces in Canada and some Caribbean countries.

He said they had not just had to compare, "although there is that, but to undertake an audit of sorts of what we have and don't have and where we can improve".

He added: "Dame Jennifer and I have been doing this on our own, on our own time and with our own resources, and this too, has added to the time it has taken to get to this point."

Governments in most democratic countries allow the public and press to attend PAC meetings — but not in Bermuda. And this week, one of the members of the PAC withdrew his support for the idea of going public.

Having said as recently as January that he believed it was "only human rights" to do so, Government backbencher Walter Lister told the House on Wednesday that he loves the closed-doors approach.

Mr. Barritt said yesterday: "I was very disappointed to hear that. I can only think it was said in the heat of the moment and possibly in anger.

"Hopefully, he will reflect and come around to what is modern practice throughout the Commonwealth. The world is marching in a different direction and we'll just become a laughing stock."

• Tell us your views on this and any other aspect of open government and transparency in Bermuda. Email arighttoknow@royalgazette.bm.