Select Committees

11 Key excerpts on "Select Committees"

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  The Impact of Legislatures

  A Quarter-Century of The Journal of Legislative Studies

  • Philip Norton(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Mattson and Strom (1995, p. 249) observe that, in parliaments, ‘much of the real deliberation takes place away from the plenary arena in much smaller groups of legislators such as parliamentary committees … committees have indeed become the main focal points of many representative assemblies’. Certainly this is true of the House of Commons, where Select Committees have increasingly been seen as an important component of parliamentary activity.

  Under the current Select Committee system, which was established in 1979, each government department has a dedicated Select Committee monitoring it: if the remit of a department changes, the remit of its committee changes to reflect this. There are currently 19 departmental Select Committees comprising between 11 and 16 MPs, almost all from the backbenches, with the balance between the parties reflecting that in the House of Commons. This has ensured a government majority on all Select Committees. Chairs, however, are divided between parties and reflect the balance between them in the House. The Select Committees are responsible for scrutinising the policy, administration and expenditure of their respective government departments. To this end, they can receive written submissions from interested groups or individuals, compel them if necessary to attend oral evidence hearings where committee members can interrogate them, and require relevant documents be made available.1 Unlike the committees of the Australian parliament for instance, the Commons’ Select Committees are free to initiate their own inquiries and do not require a reference from the main chamber. In addition to these departmental Select Committees, there are some with a cross-departmental remit, such as the Environmental Audit Committee or the Public Administration Committee.2

  But the formal powers of the Select Committees are weak in comparison with many other parliamentary committee systems (see Mattson and Strom 1995). They cannot amend, veto, or propose legislation: legislation passes through a separate system of public bill Committees with the Select Committees limited to a periodic pre-legislative scrutiny role. Nor can they block supply, veto public appointments,3 or require an issue be debated on the floor of the House. Government is required to respond to the recommendations made in Select Committee reports within three months of publication, but it is under no obligation to accept, or even formally to evaluate those recommendations.4

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  How Parliament Works

  • Nicolas Besly, Tom Goldsmith(Authors)
  • 2023(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  10 Calling to account: Select Committees

  DOI: 10.4324/9781003178910-11

  Select Committees in the House of Commons

  Introduction

  People often associate Select Committees of the House of Commons with the system of departmental Select Committees set up in 1979; but, in fact, the House has used Select Committees for centuries to investigate, advise on or consider complex matters – in fact, for any task that is more effectively carried out by a small group of MPs than by the House as a whole. The name ‘select committee’ indicates that a task or function has been given, or committed, to that body, composed of MPs selected to sit on it.

  We have already encountered general committees (see pages 197 and 237), which do not have permanent memberships: each one ceases to exist when it has finished considering the item of business committed to it. Some Select Committees are appointed for a single purpose – to examine a draft bill, perhaps – and are dissolved when they have completed their work, but most are permanent institutions. They are appointed under standing orders and so do not die at the end of a session or the end of a parliament.

  When the House meets after a general election, the permanent Select Committees are technically in existence but have no members. It can take several weeks before Select Committees can begin their work. First, the House must decide which party chairs each departmental select committee and some of the other cross-cutting and internal committees. The whole House elects the chairs of these committees, usually within about three weeks of the King’s Speech. The parties must then nominate the other committee members. Both the Conservative and Labour parties hold internal elections for select committee places. Finally, the names are agreed by the House. Following the 2019 election, parliament first met on 17 December 2019, but most Select Committees were not appointed until March 2020.

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  Parliament and the Law

  • Alexander Horne, Gavin Drewry, Alexander Horne, Gavin Drewry(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Hart Publishing

    (Publisher)

  But the consensus was that more specialised, granular analy-sis in Select Committees would enhance the work of Parliament as a whole. Though brief, the previous sections have shown that committee work today is far more diverse than the reformers of the 1970s could have imagined. Commit-tees supplement the work of both Houses in legislative scrutiny, including scru-tiny of the huge quantities of secondary legislation that would otherwise receive next to no parliamentary attention. They have moved into the territory of pub-lic inquiries, investigating wrong-doing and scandal in both public and private sectors. They hold departments and public bodies very visibly to account, includ-ing through pre-appointment hearings and regular meetings with ministers. Perhaps the most striking demonstration of the expansion of committee respon-sibilities is the fact that since 2002 the Prime Minister has given oral evidence to the House of Commons Liaison Committee—a degree of personal accountability to a committee that Norman St. John-Stevas could hardly have contemplated in 1979. 53 The reason this change has been possible is because of the flexibility and infor-mality inherent in committees, their ability and readiness to innovate. They rely Select Committees: Powers and Functions 119 54 Liaison Committee, ‘Shifting the Balance: Select Committees and the Executive’, First Report, 2000–01, HC 300, para 24. 55 Committee on Modernisation of the House of Commons, Select Committee’s First Report, 2001–02, HC 224. ultimately upon the ancient rights, powers and privileges of Parliament itself. Yet the committee, in its simplest form, is just a small group of parliamentarians, tasked with investigating an issue, meeting largely in private, and able to a large extent to make up their own rules as they go along. Thus, without any formal change in committee powers, successive reforms have enhanced and expanded the role and importance of committees.

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  Constitutional and Administrative Law

  • Roger Masterman, Colin Murray(Authors)
  • 2022(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  Objective D: To Assist the House in Debate and Division Task 10: To produce reports which are suitable for debate in the House, including Westminster Hall, or debating committees. Departmental Select Committees comprise backbench MPs elected by the party groups within the House of Commons; frontbenchers – from either the government or opposition side of the House – will not be appointed. Most departmental Select Committees have eleven members. 40 In determining the balance of parties represented on each select committee, regard is had to the balance of parties within the House of Commons itself with membership of the departmental Select Committees being broadly proportionate to the overall balance of parties. Once appointed following a general election and formation of a government, MPs remain members of their respective select committee for the duration of the Parliament. Select committee chairs are elected by secret ballot by the membership of the Commons. A number of House of Commons Select Committees are not specifically tied to the activities of any one government department. The Public Accounts Committee – which has existed since 1861 – is an important example. The Liaison Committee, comprising the Chairs of each of the House of Commons Select Committees and tasked with oversight of the work of those committees, is another. 40 The Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee, with a maximum membership of thirteen members, is one exception. 527 Scrutiny in Parliament The House of Lords also has a select committee structure, including a number of committees whose task is to focus on particular areas of law and policy making: the Constitution Committee (first appointed in 2001), the more long-standing European Union Committee and the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee are key examples.

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  Policy Making in Britain

  An Introduction

  • Peter Dorey(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  However, five of the Departmental Select Committees have more than 11 MPs serving on them, with the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee being the largest, with a membership of 14. The Treasury Committee, meanwhile, comprises 13 MPs.

  The work of Departmental Select Committees in scrutinizing the core executive, of enhancing the accountability of departments, ministers and senior officials to Parliament, and evaluating the outcomes or effectiveness of governmental policies, comprises ten core roles or tasks, as defined by the House of Commons Liaison Committee (2003: 9, para. 13. See also Brazier and Fox, 2011), which itself is comprised of the chairs of the Select Committees:

  •   To examine policy proposals from the UK government and the European Commission in Green Papers, White Papers, draft guidance and so on, and to inquire further where the committee considers it appropriate.

  •   To identify and examine areas of emerging policy, or where existing policy is deficient, and make proposals. •   To conduct scrutiny of any published Draft Bill within the committee’s responsibilities. •   To examine specific output from the department expressed in documents or other decisions. •   To examine the expenditure plans and out turn of the department, its agencies and principal non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs). •   To examine the department’s public service agreements, the associated targets and the statistical measurements employed, and report if appropriate. •   To monitor the work of the department’s executive agencies, NDPBs, regulators and other associated public bodies. •   To scrutinize major appointments made by the department. •   To examine the implementation of legislation and major policy initiatives. •   To produce reports that are suitable for debate in the House, including Westminster Hall or debating committees.

  In pursuing these roles, Departmental Select Committees are entitled (according to the Standing Orders of the House) to ‘send for persons, papers and records … and adjourn from place to place’ (House of Commons, 2011: 134, para. 135; 136, para 137a). The last aspect refers to the occasional practice of conducting visits to other parts of the country or overseas to conduct interviews or obtain further evidence in connection with a particular inquiry.

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  The American Congress

  • Steven S. Smith, Jason M. Roberts, Ryan J. Vander Wielen(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  Select com- mittees have been used for seven prominent investigations since 1970, including the Senate’s 1973 investigation of the Watergate break-in and cover-up and the 1987 House and Senate investigation of the Iran-Contra affair. Major reforms of congressional rules and organizations have originated in Select Committees. Unfortunately, committee nomenclature can be misleading. For example, the House and Senate have each made their Select Intelligence Committee permanent and granted it the power to report legislation. Moreover, some standing committees, such as the House Committee on Homeland Security, began as Select Committees The Standing Committees 178 and gained standing status later. In 1993, under pressure to streamline the legis- lative process and reduce spending, the House abolished its Select Committee on Aging, Hunger, Narcotics Abuse and Control, and its Select Committee on Children, Youth, and Families. The Senate maintains a Special Committee on Aging, which studies issues relevant to the elderly, in addition to the Select Committee on Ethics, which handles ethics violations of senators and staffs. Standing committees are the primary concern of this chapter. In the modern Congress, standing committees originate most legislation, and their members manage the legislation on the floor and dominate conference committees. Un- less otherwise indicated, the following discussion concerns standing committees. THE NATURE OF CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES The Constitution makes no provision for committees. However, committees emerged early in congressional history. Over time, the committee system has undergone con- siderable change. At different points in history the House and Senate have adopted rules to expand and reduce the number of committees, as well as to modify their structure and authority.

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  The Private Member of Parliament and the Formation of Public Policy

  A New Zealand Case Study

  • Robert Kelson(Author)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • University of Toronto Press

    (Publisher)

  Such a system of accounting would provide a good basis for taking decisions as to which activities should be expanded and which con-tracted. 32 Given more time for its work than at present, the Committee might be able to recommend desirable revisions in the organization of the accounts. 96 THE PRIVATE MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT PRIVATE BILLS COMMITTEES The consideration of the half-dozen or so private bills per year which come be-fore the House is given by several ad hoc committees composed of private mem-bers appointed by the Select Committee on Selection. The committees' chief concern is that the rights of individuals other than the petitioners should not be affected adversely by the bill. On rare occasions the bills are hotly debated and the role of the committees comes close to being that of a judicial organ. Ordinarily the committees are solely concerned to see that all interested parties have been notified of the opportunity given them by the committees to contest the bill. 88 Where minor differences exist between the contesting parties, the committees attempt to conciliate between them. There are few complaints about the im-partiality and competence of these committees which play a minor but useful role in Parliament. THE EXTERNAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE The only sessional select committee created for the first time during the period under review, was the External Affairs Committee, which began its existence in 1947. Its function is to consider such matters of external or Commonwealth affairs as may be referred to it by the House or by the Government. As New Zealand began to participate more actively and independently in international affairs than formerly, the Opposition wished to play an increased role in the consideration of foreign policy.

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  The American Congress

  • Steven S. Smith, Jason M. Roberts, Ryan J. Vander Wielen(Authors)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  Unfortunately, committee nomenclature can be misleading. For example, the House and Senate have each made their Select Intelligence Commit- tee permanent and granted it the power to report legislation. Some Select Committees, such as the House Committee on Homeland Security, began as Select Committees and gained standing status later. In 1993, under pres- sure to streamline the legislative process and reduce spending, the House abolished its Select Committee on Aging, Hunger, Narcotics Abuse and Control, and its Select Committee on Children, Youth, and Families. The Senate maintains a Special Committee on Aging, which studies issues rel- evant to the elderly, in addition to the Select Committee on Ethics, which handles ethics violations of senators and staffs. Standing committees are the primary concern of this chapter. In the mod- ern Congress, standing committees originate most legislation, and their members manage the legislation on the floor and dominate conference committees. Unless otherwise indicated, the following discussion concerns standing committees. The Nature of Congressional Committees The Constitution makes no provision for committees. Yet, committees emerged early in congressional history. And across time the committee sys- tem has undergone considerable change. At different points in history the House and Senate have adopted rules to expand and reduce the number of committees, as well as to modify their structure and authority. Given the emergence and longevity of committees, it is clear that the division of labor 176 THE AMERICAN CONGRESS that allows each chamber to pursue multiple hearings and legislative efforts simultaneously has proven useful. To whom are committees responsible? What interests do committees serve? Such questions have motivated an important literature in political science. Three prominent perspectives offer rationale for the existence of committees – the information, distributive, and partisan perspectives.

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  Comparing Devolved Governance

  • D. Birrell(Author)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  The proportional basis in Northern Ireland gave the DUP five chairs in 2007, changed to six chairs in 2011. This reflected a ministerial change as the principle is adopted of min- ister and chair not being from the same party. Committees were originally seen as having a special role in holding ministers to account in the absence of an official political opposition. Subject matter of committee inquiries The inquiry role of committees has been described in rather different terms in the Parliament and Assemblies but there are quite a lot of similarities in their work, in terms of the types of inquiry, the subject matter of inquiries and the operational mode of the committees. The Scottish Parliament’s committees can consider and report on any matter within their subject area and have focussed on policy development, rather than holding ministers to account. In Wales the remit in Standing Orders is to examine expenditure, administration and policy and there has been more emphasis on holding ministers to account. The subject committees regularly scrutinise the poli- cies and priorities of Welsh ministers and call them in for questioning. The Northern Ireland Assembly committees were originally set up with a more specific role in the 1998 Northern Ireland Act of advising and assisting departments in the formulation of policy. This evolved into a more tradi- tional role of undertaking scrutiny, policy development and a consultation role with ministers. As all the committees have developed it is possible to categorise the work into: major inquiries; short investigations; responses to events; annual budget monitoring plus annual reports; and, in the case of Wales, inquiries into the impact of UK Bills. Major inquiries leading to a comprehensive report based on the taking of evidence and containing policy recommendations is closely associated with the Westminster tradi- tion of Select Committees.

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  Making British Law

  Committees in Action

  • Louise Thompson(Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  It was noted in the previous chapter that committees are often described as being miniature versions of the House of Commons. Stepping into a committee room it is easy to see why. For although rooms on the committee corridor vary in size, they are designed in the same way, with a seating plan which mirrors the adversarial nature of the Commons chamber. Government and Opposition Members face each other, sitting either side of the committee Chair. At the back of the room there is a small seating area for the press and a larger seating area for members of the public. Although not as popular as the Commons chamber, sittings of bill committees are open to members of the public. More often however, these seats are taken up by committee members’ own staff and by representatives of outside groups.

  Purpose

  At the committee stage of a bill, MPs undertake both a legislative and a scrutiny role, often concurrently. For this is the first opportunity for MPs of any party to make amendments to pieces of legislation. The primary role of committee members is one of rendering a bill more generally acceptable. Erskine May describes a committee’s primary function as being ‘to consider the bill clause by clause and, if it wishes, word by word, and to approve the text or modify it to reflect the committee’s legislative intentions’ (Jack et al., 2011, p. 563). MPs highlight the need to identify the unintended consequences of legislation. Thus, they frequently seek to explore the meaning of specific words or phrases used in the text of a bill or the precise purpose of a particular section or clause.

  Sittings and membership

  Bill committees are not permanent. They are ad hoc creations. A new committee is formed for every bill. The average membership is around 19 MPs, though some bills, such as the annual Finance Bill, are scrutinised by a much larger number. Standing Order 86 states that a maximum of 50 Members may be appointed. During the 2013–14 session, the European Union (Referendum) Bill Committee contained 16 Members, whilst 19 MPs were appointed to the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill Committee. The largest bill committee was the Finance (No. 2) Bill which was scrutinised by 35 MPs.

  Bill committees are permitted to sit on any day when the House is sitting. In practice government bills are usually considered in committee on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They follow relatively standard sitting times, meeting in the morning and again in the afternoon. There is a break over lunchtime to enable members to take refreshments and to attend departmental question time on the floor of the House. Afternoon sittings though are more variable and committees can stretch into the late afternoon. All-night sittings used to be more commonplace but thankfully they are now very rare.

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  Democracy and Institutional Development

  Spain in Comparative Theoretical Perspective

  • B. Field, K. Hamann, B. Field, K. Hamann(Authors)
  • 2008(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  Committees have been found to exert more influence on policy when they have fixed jurisdictions corresponding to ministerial divi- sions, membership is characterized by low turnover and high expertise, and the committees possess resources, such as staff. A large number of small standing committees may also add to expertise and decision- making power, whereas ad hoc committees wield less expertise and there- fore, less mark-up ability (Benda, 1997; Damgaard, 1995; Loewenberg and Patterson, 1979; Jenny and Müller, 1995; Mattson and Strøm, 1995; Olson and Norton, 1996; Strøm, 1997, 1990b). For example, in Britain, traditional legislative “standing committees” are not permanent with fixed jurisdictions, but instead are formed for each individual bill; as such, members of the committees have not been able to develop an expertise or to substantially alter legislation. “Select Committees” formed in the 1970s have allowed for some specialization, but their powers are of scrutinization and not over legislation. Formal powers are necessary for influential committees (such as the ability to initiate, block, or mark up legislation), but not alone sufficient to render them powerful. 3 Probably the most important factor determining the strength of committees in parliamentary systems is the degree of party discipline. Members of committees that function in the cross-party mode have more independent ability to affect legislation, whereas disciplined parties rep- resented in proportion to the chamber at large will hamper that ability (Andeweg and Nijzink, 1995; King, 1976). Varying degrees of party unity are found in parliamentary systems, as well as within their committees. For example, in Sweden, Damgaard (1995, p. 114) found that voting dis- sension has become more frequent and acceptable in committees, and that the committees have thus become more independent and special- ized.

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