I have written on a previous Blog posting (http://roberthalfon.blogspot.com/2010/07/quiet-revolution.html), how there is a move - albeit slowly - to re-balance the power away from Government and transfer it to the elected Parliament. Select Committees - the bodies that examine the work of Government Departments - are acquiring more powers. Their members are now elected which gives the Committees real authority.

Bit by bit, Select Committees are moving towards becoming like their American counterparts. Some Committees like the Public Administration Select Committee, now have the ability to approve appointments to non-departmental public bodies (otherwise known as Quangos).

This trend has continued with the recent Government announcement about Departmental reports and transparency.

The Coalition has determined that each Ministerial Department will not only publish monthly reports on the Internet, but that Select Committees will be given power to check whether the 'milestones' set out in the reports are being met. This should increase the influence of Select Committees, as they will now have the ability to call the Government to account as never before.

My hope is that Select Committees will acquire similar rights and influence of Congressional and Senate Committees. The way things are going, Commons Select Committees will make a real difference to our body politic.

P.S. Yesterday, I asked a question about the power of Select Committees to Oliver Letwin (Cabinet Office Minister):
Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 8 November 2010, c29)⁠

Robert Halfon (Harlow): As a member of the Public Administration Committee I welcome the plans to shift some of this on to Select Committees. Will my right hon. Friend set out how the reports could be judged by those Committees and how their powers could be increased, so as to increase further the power of the legislature over the Executive?

Oliver Letwin (Minister of State, Cabinet Office; West Dorset, Conservative):

My hon. Friend is absolutely right that the Select Committees play a vital role in that respect. This approach puts vastly more power in the hands of the Select Committees, because the biggest obstacle to their power is, of course, lack of information-and this approach opens the whole thing up. This is not just a question of the structural reform plans and the dates, on which of course Committees can interrogate, as they can interrogate explanations when things go wrong; it is also about the details of the input costs-what we are putting in-the things that have been achieved on the ground and the outcomes, by which I mean how good it is for the final customer. That gives a Select Committee the ability to haul the relevant Secretary of State up before it and say, "Look, you said you were going to do this." The Committee could then say: "You did not do it"; "You did it, but at a greater cost than you said"; "You did it at the cost but it did not turn out to produce things"; or "It did produce things but the outcomes were not good enough." That is a very powerful interrogative tool. Hon. Members may ask why we would subject ourselves to this. The answer is because we think that it is how we will produce a better Government.


Posted By Blogger to Rob's Blog at 11/09/2010 11:06:00 PM