Now for cross party Commons reform

By Michael Meacher MP

In the light of calls now being made for the democratisation of Parliament, a cross-party group of 32 senior Parliamentarians, drawn equally from the three main parties, have signed a letter to the PM calling for the election of chairs and members of Select Committees by Members of the whole House by secret ballot, in order to increase the independence of the House of Commons’ powers of scrutiny and to strengthen the Legislature by bypassing the patronage of the Whips.

This is more than a symbolic change. The PLP Chief Whip recently decreed that nobody who had voted against the Government in the last year should be eligible to serve on a Select Committee, even though confining membership of these committees to loyalists would largely rob them of their whole purpose which is to hold the Government effectively to account. But the letter makes other demands too.

The letter is signed by, among others, Alan Beith, Menzies Campbell, Vince Cable and Chris Huhne for the Liberals, George Young, John Gummer and Richard Shepherd for the Tories, and Chris Mullin, Nick Raynsford, Tony Wright and Frank Field for Labour, as well as by myself. As a major cross-party exercise it is significant as a real attempt to break the entrenchment of tribalism in the Commons which has hitherto constantly blocked the process of reform and left the Executive as the winner by default. It is designed to bring about change whoever wins the next election.

But even more important than the issue of democratic election for Select Committees, the letter also demands a reform of procedure which would remove the single greatest weakness in the operation of these committees. That is the fact that having reported, nothing then happens. Of course Select Committees may exercise influence both in government circles and via media reporting. But there is at present no leverage by which they can routinely challenge Government policy.

What the letter proposes is that the chairs of Select Committees should have time allotted to ensure that some of the reports of these committees (as prioritised by the Liaison Committee) should be debated and voted on the floor of the House on a substantive motion drawn up by the committee concerned. Potentially this gives the House power to change Government policy.

The letter also proposes one other important innovation. It suggests that, just as Ministers make statements to the House on major new developments in Government policy, so the chairman of Select Committees should in some cases have a right to make a brief statement to the House outlining key recommendations and then be questioned about the proposals, for perhaps half an hour in total. This would more closely connect the investigatory committee with the decision-making forum in Parliament.

Michael Meacher also blogs at michaelmeacher.info/weblog/.