House of Lords select committees 17.03.16

1. © House of Lords 2009
Patrick Milner
Thursday 17 March 2016
Overview of Select Committees
in the House of Lords
Parliament Explained: Select Committees

2. © House of Lords 2009
What is a Select Committee?
Appointed by the House
Set number of Members
Defined terms of reference, common powers
Formal meetings have same status as sittings of the House
Excludes Leader’s Groups, All-party groups, statutory committees

3. © House of Lords 2009
Different types of Select Committee
Domestic – concerned with the
administration of the House
• Legislative – consider primary and
secondary legislation, and draft legislation
• Investigative – consider matters of public
policy within a particular area.
Policy committees

4. © House of Lords 2009
Principles underlying Lords’ policy
committee activity
Integration of committee and Chamber work
No duplication of the work of other bodies, particularly Commons committees (so
committee remits are normally thematic rather than departmentally based, as in
the Commons)
At least one ad hoc committee at any one time
Oversight of committee activity through Liaison Committee.

5. © House of Lords 2009
Policy committees
European Union
(6 sub-
committees)
Science &
Technology
Economic Affairs
(Finance Bill
sub-committee)
Constitution Communications
Joint Committee
on Human
Rights

6. © House of Lords 2009
In addition ...
• Personal Service Companies
• Barnett Formula
• HIV and AIDS in the UK
Ad hoc committes
• Eg Draft Defamation Bill Joint Committee
Joint committees on pre-
legislative scrutiny
• Lords Reform 2002/3
• Conventions of the UK Parliament 2006
• Constitutional Reform Bill 2004
One-offs
Delegated Powers and
Regulatory Reform
Secondary Legislation
Scrutiny Committee
• Public and private bills
• JCSITechnical committees

7. © House of Lords 2009
Liaison Committee
Exercises general oversight of Lords policy
committee activity
Composed of party leaders and senior
members of the House
Considers proposals for new committee
activity, and constraints

8. © House of Lords 2009
Membership
Usually about 12
members on each
committee
General political balance
(say 4 Lab, 4 Cons, 2 X-
B and 2 LD).
Government not to have
a majority under the
coalition
About 180 Members
currently involved in
investigative policy
committees, Delegated
Powers and Sec Leg

9. © House of Lords 2009
Membership
Selected by the
Committee of
Selection, on
nomination of the Chief
Whips and Convenor of
the Crossbenchers;
Rotation rule that no-
one may serve for more
than three consecutive
sessions – enormous
turnover

10. © House of Lords 2009
The process of committee work
Consensual
Intended to be accessible; proceedings much more
informal than sittings of the House
For investigative committees in particular, outward-facing
and based on the principle of seeking to gather views of
interested parties

11. © House of Lords 2009
Warning!
Committees have misleading terminology – “witnesses”;
“evidence”; “submission”
But they are political, not judicial bodies (on the whole)
Powers of committees are difficult to use and in practice
they depend on cooperation by outside bodies, and
Government

12. © House of Lords 2009
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.

13. © House of Lords 2009
Outcomes
Committees report to the House, but of course have a wider audience
Investigative reports are usually debated on the floor and all receive a
written response from Government within 2 months, and sometimes a
response from others eg European Commission, judiciary
Reports from committees often feed into the legislative process too; EU
Committee scrutiny of EU legislative proposals; legislative committee
reports often “tagged” on order of business; growing practice to table
committee amendments to bills

14. © House of Lords 2009
What does it involve for members?
Policy committees
usually meet weekly
when the House is
sitting, 90mins-3hrs
Papers sent out for
the weekend before,
can be quite
substantial
Occasional debates
in the House or
Grand Committee
Occasional
additional demands
(visits, informal
meetings, etc.)

15. © House of Lords 2009
Committee visits

16. © House of Lords 2009
Civil Servants and the Osmotherly Rules
1. Select Committees have an important role in ensuring the full and proper
accountability of the Executive to Parliament. Ministers have emphasised that, when
officials represent them before Select Committees, they should be as forthcoming and
helpful as they can in providing information relevant to Committee inquiries. In giving
evidence to Select Committees, officials should take care to ensure that no
information is withheld which would not be exempted if a parallel request were made
to the Department under the Freedom of Information Act.
4. The Civil Service Code makes clear that civil servants are accountable to Ministers
who in turn are accountable to Parliament. It therefore follows that when civil servants
give evidence to a Select Committee they are doing so, not in a personal capacity, but
as representatives of their Ministers.
5. This does not mean that officials may not be called upon to give a full account of
government policies, or the justification, objectives and effects of these policies, but
their purpose in doing so is to contribute to the process of ministerial accountability
not to offer personal views or judgements on matters of government policy - to do so
could undermine their political impartiality.

17. © House of Lords 2009
Patrick Milner
Thursday 17 March 2016
Overview of Select Committees
in the House of Lords
Parliament Explained: Select Committees