Strengthening parliament's powers of scrutiny? An assessment of the introduction of Public Bill Committees

In: (Constitution Unit Publications 145 ). The Constitution Unit, Department of Political Science, UCL: London, UK.

Abstract

In November 2006 the House of Commons approved a series of changes recommended by its Select Committee on Modernisation that altered the procedures by which parliament scrutinises government bills. The committee stage of the legislative process in the House of Commons, the stage where bills are examined in detail, was overhauled in the interests of achieving enhanced scrutiny and a more informed and accessible legislative process. Standing committees, as were, were re-named 'public bill committees' and endowed with the power to call witnesses and receive written submissions from interested and expert bodies external to parliament, in the course of their scrutiny of a bill. To a limited extent, these committees have become more like select committees. The introduction of public bill committees was an important innovation in the way the House of Commons scrutinises legislation. But it has not been subject to any evaluation. We encouraged Jessica Levy to pursue her Masters dissertation at UCL on this topic. It was a good dissertation, so she was later invited to develop it - following further research - into a report for the Constitution Unit. This is the result. The report draws on a series of almost 30 interviews with many of the key players in public bill committees to date – government and opposition spokespersons, backbenchers, clerks and witnesses – and an examination of documents relating to all such committees in the 2006-07 and 2007-08 sessions. It is the first comprehensive study to review the work of the new committees. Public bill committees have been described as 'a step and a half in the right direction.' In this report Jessica sets out many of their benefits, and also recommends a series of further improvements. If her recommendations are accepted, these important new committees will be moving more strongly in the right direction and making a real contribution to the scrutiny of legislation.