st john-stevas reforms | The Constitution Unit Blog

Dr Sarah Wollaston, Chair of the Liaison Committee, discusses its new report into how the system of select committees can operate more effectively, both in terms of their place within the House of Commons and their external impact. New ways of working and more powers are suggested, such as taking a ‘digital first’ approach to reports and formalising formalising further the arrangements for the Prime Minister to appear before the Liaison Committee.

Even at times of deep political division, select committees often show parliament at its best. MPs work together across party lines to reach consensus and to hold the government of the day to account. This June marked the fortieth birthday of the departmental select committee system. The Liaison Committee, which is made up of the chairs of all select committees, took the opportunity to review what select committees do and how they do it, publishing our recommendations on 9 September, in a report entitled The effectiveness and influence of the committee system.

Our report introduces a new set of aims and objectives that better reflect the work of modern select committees. From climate change to social care, the impact of Brexit to fake news, select committees have become a driving force for investigation into emerging issues of the day. They have always been a place where the administration, policies and spending of government has been scrutinised. Since the banking crisis of 2008, they have increasingly become a place where those outside government who hold significant public roles or power over people’s lives can be held publicly to account. We recognise this role in investigating areas of public concern in our new aims and objectives and call for it to be reflected in our formal remits.

The new objectives talk about what we do; they also talk about how we do it. We have made progress in hearing from more diverse groups of people and engaging directly with the public in new and more inclusive ways. The Health and Social Care and Housing, Communities and Local Government Committees, which worked alongside a Citizens’ Assembly on Social Care, and the Petitions Committee’s inquiry into the online abuse of disabled people, are exemplars of how committees are increasingly engaging with people outside the usual groups who contribute and including those who have lived experience. Continue reading →

On 19 March, the Unit held an event: ‘Challenges for Parliament: Looking Back, Looking Forward’, at which Sir David Natzler – who retired as Clerk of the House of Commons in February – spoke to Professor Meg Russell about his 40-year career in parliament. The discussion was both entertaining and informative; Dave Busfield-Birch summarises the key points.

Early days

Sir David first started working in the House of Commons in 1975, at what he called an ‘exciting time’, just two years after the UK had joined what was then known as the European Communities. His first assignment was as clerk to the European Legislation Committee, which was facing the novel challenge of sifting through the legislation passed by an unelected Council of Ministers sitting in the capital city of another country, and recommending which measures should be debated.

Parliament was unsurprisingly a very different place in the early years of Sir David’s Commons career. Talking of the key differences, he first spoke of how ‘expectations’ had changed significantly since then. For example, there were no limits on how long a Member could speak in those days. Whereas the Speaker (or one of the Deputy Speakers) can now impose relatively short time limits for MPs wishing to speak, that was not the case in 1975. Sir David considered this ‘almost one of the biggest changes’ of the past two or three centuries; that speaking for a long time can no longer be used to ‘destroy business’.

One of the other key differences between then and now is that the House of Commons lacked fiscal independence when he first started working there. It was instead reliant on the government for finance, thereby limiting its ability to take crucial decisions such as whether or not to recruit more staff. The Treasury hence had control of the Commons until the establishment of the House of Commons Commission in 1978, at which point the Commons became fiscally independent. Continue reading →