THE Government's controversial Scottish Local Government Bill was

halted in its tracks yesterday when the parties at Westminster failed to

agree on the composition of the committee of MPs which was due to start

considering it line by line next Tuesday.

The Opposition parties held out for the Government to have a majority

of only one on a 25-person committee. The Government wants a majority of

two on a committee of 26.

The difference one makes is important on a committee which could be

sitting long and late on the biggest Bill the Scottish Office has

produced since the war, with one member, Scottish Secretary Ian Lang,

anxious not to miss Thursday Cabinet meetings held at the same time the

committee would be sitting.

Party strengths on standing committees, according to Commons standing

orders, are supposed to ''have regard to'' the balance of parties in the

Commons as a whole.

Labour's deputy Chief Whip, Mr Don Dixon, applying his slide rule,

worked out that the Conservatives, depleted by by-election losses and

the withdrawal of the party whip from one member, were entitled to

12.790 places (13 rounded up), Labour to 10.394 (10 rounded down) and

the minor parties, Liberal Democrat and SNP in this case, to 1.816 (two

rounded up).

Backed by the minor parties' representative, Liberal Democrat Whip

Archy Kirkwood, he refused to nominate members for the committee when

the Government insisted on a majority of two. The committee of

selection, an all-party body, decided to meet again next Wednesday to

see if a solution had been found by the parties.

As the usual arrangements for organising business have broken down and

Government and Opposition are seeking procedural advantages and to make

difficulties for each other almost every day, the prospect of agreement

does not look good.

The Government, anxious to have the huge Bill -- 169 clauses and 14

schedules -- out of committee by Easter, may have to back down.

The Bill tackles the reorganisation of the water industry, the

Children's Reporter administration, valuation and rating, self-governing

schools, and tourism as well as the creation of 28 all-purpose local

councils.

Mr Lang declined to comment last night and a Scottish Office

spokeswoman said the issue was a matter for the committee of selection.

But if the committee evntually gets under way a week late, Ministers

will certainly use their majority, even if it is only one, to try to

make up for lost time.

The Shadow Scottish Secretary, Mr George Robertson, pointed out that

the Opposition had allowed the Government a majority of two on other

Bills and the figures did not justify that on every committee.

Mr Kirkwood said: ''No-one should be under the misapprehension that

this is some sort of trick to waste time. It is designed to secure a

committee in which it will be easier to make constructive amendments to

the Bill.''

SNP spokesman Andrew Welsh, however, said: ''This should be the start

of the process of delaying, slowing, and stopping this Bill.'' He

claimed it was ''exactly the tactic'' the SNP put forward the day before

at a meeting at which the three Opposition parties agreed informal

co-operation on the Bill.

If the committee of selection cannot resolve the issue next week, and

it could be reluctant to divide on inevitably party lines, the Speaker,

Miss Betty Boothroyd, could be asked to rule on what the majority of the

committee should be.

Likely members of the committee who had expected to start a gruelling

schedule on Tuesday were tempering their pleasure at a week's respite

with the reflection that they will probably pay for it later.