Select committees need to plan ahead, says think tank

Parliamentary select committees should decide what they want to achieve and tailor their approach accordingly, a report from the Institute for Government has said.

The report, published on 9 June, examines the relationship between select committee inquiries and the resulting impact on government during the 2010-15 parliament. It used two committees from the House of Commons—the Defence Committee and Home Affairs Committee—as well as the temporary Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, membership of which comprised both MPs and peers, as case studies.

The institute says that committees tend to focus on the activity they should be undertaking, rather than what they want to achieve. This is exemplified by the way committees are encouraged to undertake core tasks, says the report, which are set by the Liaison Committee: "A committee could obediently undertake activity in relation to each of the core tasks and still have no positive impact whatsoever on government," the report says.