Select committees at westminster ho c & hol
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Parliament Explained for Civil Servants: Select Committees
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Select committees at westminster ho c & hol
- 1. David Lawrie – Events Programme Manager Parliamentary Outreach Service
- 2. James Davies Clerk to Business Innovations & Skills Select Committee Parliament Explained: Select Committees
- 5. Composition and appointment • Membership reflects balance of parties in the House • Since 2010, Chairs elected by House- wide ballot • Other members elected by their parties
- 6. Vexing civil servants since 1668 “At the office all the morning, where comes a damned summons to attend the Committee of Miscarriages to-day, which makes me mad, that I should by my place become the hackney of this Office, in perpetual trouble and vexation, that need it least.” ~ Sam. Pepys
- 7. Overall aim To hold Ministers and Departments to account for their policy and decision- making and to support the House in its control of the supply of public money and scrutiny of legislation
- 8. Revised core tasks 1. STRATEGY: To examine the strategy of the department, how it has identified its key objectives and priorities and whether it has the means to achieve them, in terms of plans, resources, skills, capabilities and management information 2. POLICY: To examine policy proposals by the department, and areas of emerging policy, or where existing policy is deficient, and make proposals 3. EXPENDITURE AND PERFORMANCE: To examine the expenditure plans, outturn and performance of the department and its arm's length bodies, and the relationships between spending and delivery of outcomes 4. DRAFT BILLS: To conduct scrutiny of draft bills within the committee's responsibilities 5. BILLS AND DELEGATED LEGISLATION: To assist the House in its consideration of bills and statutory instruments, including draft orders under the Public Bodies Act HC 697, First Report of 2012-13, Select committee effectiveness, resources and powers, 25 October 2012
- 9. Revised core tasks 6. POST-LEGISLATIVE SCRUTINY: To examine the implementation of legislation and scrutinise the department's post- legislative assessments 7. EUROPEAN SCRUTINY: To scrutinise policy developments at the European level and EU legislative proposals 8. APPOINTMENTS: To scrutinise major appointments made by the department and to hold pre-appointment hearings where appropriate 9. SUPPORT FOR THE HOUSE: To produce timely reports to inform debate in the House, including Westminster Hall, or debating committees, and to examine petitions tabled 10.PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT: To assist the House of Commons in better engaging with the public by ensuring that the work of the committee is accessible to the public
- 10. What we do • Seek written submissions • Commission research - sometimes • Hold public “evidence” sessions • Seminars etc • Visits • Produce reports • Publish letters etc – and tweet • Initiate debates in the House & Westminster Hall
- 11. © House of Lords 2014 Anna Murphy 26 February 2015 House of Lords procedure for Select Committees
- 12. © House of Lords 2014 Different types of Select Committee Domestic • Legislative • Investigative Policy committees
- 13. © House of Lords 2014 Characteristics of Lords committees “Cross-cutting” rather than departmental Complement the Commons Most committees are outward-facing and engage with interested parties Distinctive style
- 14. © House of Lords 2014 Membership Usually 12 members on each committee General political balance Government does not have a majority About 170 Members currently involved – rotation rule = 3 sessions Selected by Committee of Selection, on nomination of Chief Whips and Convenor of the Crossbenchers;
- 15. © House of Lords 2014 Powers of committees Some powers are common to all committees: - send for “persons, papers and records” i.e. witnesses and evidence - meet concurrently with any Commons Committee (SO 67) But most are in specific orders of reference report from time to time appoint specialist advisers adjourn “from place to place” (within or outside UK) print reports despite the House not sitting refer to evidence taken in the previous session publish evidence appoint sub- committees and appoint their chairmen co-opt additional members to sub- committees
- 16. © House of Lords 2014 Sessional committees European Union Science & Technology Economic Affairs Constitution Communications Joint Committee on Human Rights
- 17. © House of Lords 2014 Other select Committees • Ad hoc Select Committees: growth area in Lords – Affordable Childcare – Arctic – Digital skills • Post-Legislative Scrutiny Committee – Extradition Law and Practice • Pre-Legislative Scrutiny Joint Committees – Draft Voting Eligibility (Prisoners) Bill – last session
- 18. © House of Lords 2014 Select Committees on Delegated Powers • Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments • Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee – policy merit – appropriateness /gold plating • Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee – appropriate use of powers – draft legislation reform orders
- 19. © House of Lords 2014 The process of committee work Investigation and exploratory work; seminars Call for evidence Oral/written evidence collected; visits Deliberation Report Where time is tight some of these steps may be dispensed with, especially by legislative committees.
- 20. © House of Lords 2014 Outcomes Committees report to the House, but have a wider audience Government response & debate Impact Evaluation and follow-up
- 21. © House of Lords 2014 Engaging with the work of Select Committees Talk to committee staff Go and see a committee sitting, or watch a webcast Subscribe to web alerts & follow us on Twitter
- 22. © House of Lords 2014
- 23. David Lawrie – Events Programme Manager Parliamentary Outreach Service
Editor's Notes
- Different types of select committee In the Commons: Departmental (one per Government department) Other scrutiny Committees – PAC (the Environmental Audit (cross cutting); Political and Constitutional Reform; PASC; European Scrutiny; SCSI; Reg Reform Joint Committees – Joint Committee on human rights; JCSI Temporary Committees (one house or both) with specific orders of reference, e.g. to examine a draft Bill and report And there are internal Committees eg Liaison Committee, Administration Committee, Procedure Committee, Committee on Standards, Committee on Privileges, Committee of Selection (described as “a committee whose job it is to meet”) Added to which, in 2011 a new breed of Parliamentary investigatory body was established: the Parliamentary Commission. Distinguished from committees which are established by statute rather than by order of either House, and whose members are appointed or nominated by means other than by vote of that House: House of Commons Commission; Public Accounts Commission; Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission; SCIPSA; Ecclesiastical Committee; Intelligence and Security Committee. All this goes to illustrate the complexity of the select committee system in both Houses.
- Departmental select committees are appointed to scrutinise the spending, policy and administration of Government departments. They are one of the most widely known and public means by which Parliament holds Government —and, increasingly, bodies outside Government—to account
- History of select committees (briefly, main point being they did not start in 1979) The departmental select committee system is so well-established that it is often forgotten that it was set up just over thirty years ago, at the beginning of the Thatcher administration. The Leader of the House in MT’s first Cabinet, Norman St John-Stevas, is credited with proposing and driving through the establishment of the modern select committee system in 1979. Committees were appointed by the House to examine various matters as early as the reign of Charles I, and by 1668 a committee of the Commons had taken the bold step of launching an inquiry into the conduct of an entire war. The Dutch raid on the English fleet in the Medway in June 1667 was a political and military catastrophe: the flagship of the English fleet, the Royal Charles, was captured and hauled off to Amsterdam. The transom of the ship is still on display in the Rijksmuseum as a war trophy. The English swiftly sued for peace and in return got to keep a small settlement on an island off the eastern seaboard of the North American continent, then named New Amsterdam. A Committee “to inquire into the Miscarriage of Affairs in the late War” was set up by the Commons. It wanted answers, many of them from one Samuel Pepys, Clerk of the Acts of the Navy Board. It is clear from an entry in Pepys’ diary for February 1668 that the Committee, reaching the end of its investigations, had called him back once too often to answer questions on matters which had not been his responsibility. Present-day civil servants may have some sympathy with him.
- In May 2002 the Liaison Committee proposed core tasks for select committees. Designed to ensure that select committees to carry out the full range of activities currently open to them. Agreed to by the House: provide a framework for Committee activity. Updated in 2012 by Liaison Committee report on Select Committee effectiveness, resources and powers. What select Committees do not do Do not have executive authority for example, can hold a pre appointment hearing, but do not make the final decision about who will be appointed. The Government does this. Do not have a formal legislative role. In this way very different from, for example, US Congressional Committees and committees of the Scottish Parliament (Although do carry out pre-legislative scrutiny) Do not have a role in voting for or against budgetary items decisions, although they do scrutinise Departmental accounts
- concerned with the administration of the House A Select Committee is a body of members of the House who have been selected to sit on that body and to which a task or function has been given or committed Committees can be either Domestic – concerned with the administration of the House Legislative – which considers primary and secondary legislation, and draft legislation, or investigative – which consider matters of public policy within a particular area. Select Committees are mostly investigative.
- Eg S&Ts Consensual less formal than in the House
- House of expertise Eg S&T – L Winston, L Krebs, Rees, Perry Committees have the power to co-opt other members of the House with relevant expertise for a particular inquiry.
- Talk to us throughout. Clerk, Policy Analyst and CA