Assessing the House of Commons Backbench Business Committee 15 years on

 The House of Commons Backbench Business Committee was established in 2010, following recommendations from the ‘Wright Committee’ on reform of the Commons. At this 15-year point the committee is reviewing its operation, and in this post Meg Russell and Hannah Kelly summarise their submission to the review, which is due to be published shortly. They conclude that the Backbench Business Committee was an important innovation, but that changes are needed to get back to the Wright Committee’s vision of it helping facilitate a more responsive and independent House of Commons. 

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The Modernisation Committee: revisiting past experience 

September’s government reshuffle means that there is a new Leader of the Commons, and therefore a change to the leadership of the Houses Modernisation Committee. The new chair, Alan Campbell, might usefully study the committee’s 1997–2010 predecessor. In this post, Tom Fleming and Hannah Kelly summarise the key findings from a new article reviewing that earlier committee’s record. 

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Prime Minister’s Question Period in the Canadian House of Commons: Lessons in parliamentary reform 

Between 2017 and 2025, the Canadian House of Commons operated a Prime Minister’s Question Period procedure, introduced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. In a new published article summarised here, Ruxandra Serban explores how this procedure worked, and how it differed from the traditional Question Period model. 

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Reviewing the Modernisation Committee’s first year 

This week marks a year since the House of Commons established a new Modernisation Committee. In this post, Tom Fleming reviews the committee’s first year. 

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