In-House expertise: the Scrutiny
Unit
75. The Committee Office Scrutiny Unit was set up
in November 2002 following recommendations from this Committee
and the Modernisation and Procedure Committees, and the approval
of the House of Commons Commission. As we noted above at paras
24 and 37, the Unit provides specialist support for committees
on expenditure matters and draft bills together with an element
of 'surge' capacity at times of unexpected demand or temporary
staffing shortages. The Unit reached its full complement in January
2004 with ten specialists (including six secondees—three
accountants from the NAO, an Estimates expert from a government
department, a Library statistician, and a performance audit adviser
from the Audit Commission—and two lawyers and two economic/social
policy experts on short-term contract) and seven core staff.
76. Since its inception the Unit has carried out
over 100 tasks for select committees, which have varied significantly
in size. Initially the Unit concentrated on expenditure matters,
but with the publication of draft bills in the middle of the year,
this latter area became the largest proportion of the Unit's work,
not least because of the heavy commitment involved in providing
staff for four joint committees.
77. The following table shows the number of tasks
completed by the Unit for select committees, and the allocation
of time by select committee:
78. In terms of its expenditure work for committees,
the Unit has so far focused on Supplementary Estimates for which
committees have commissioned the Unit to provide analyses. The
Unit provides material for committees to use as they see fit:
13 committees made such requests in respect of the 2003 Winter
Supplementaries, and the Unit's work led in some cases to further
correspondence with departments, or questions at evidence sessions.
The Unit has also advised committees on their departmental annual
reports: ten committees benefited from this advice in 2003, including
some assistance with drafting reports. Identification and analysis
of many of the expenditure and departmental annual report issues
noted relied on Scrutiny Unit input.
79. In terms of draft bills, the Scrutiny Unit has
devoted significant resources to providing staff to joint committees,
the heaviest commitment having been to the ad hoc Joint Committee
on the draft Gambling Bill, where 300 person days of work
involving five staff had been provided by February 2004. However,
the Unit also assisted four departmental committees in their examination
of five other bills in total, as well as helping the then Committee
on the Lord Chancellor's Department with its inquiry into the
Courts Bill [Lords] and the Quadripartite Committee in
its examination of secondary legislation on export controls.
80. Committees have been appreciative of the assistance
provided by the Scrutiny Unit. Annual Reports noted:
- "[the Unit] has provided
support and briefing on many subjects, particularly on those with
a financial angle. It is useful to have an in-house unit with
financial expertise, which can be called in to deal with matters
such as Estimates quickly without disrupting the rest of the Committee's
timetable. We believe that this central resource for Committees
has proved its worth over the last year"[155]
(Transport Committee);
- "during 2003 the Unit provided briefing
and other material relating to our inquiries into the Rural
Payments Agency, the Delivery of Education in Rural Areas,
the Departmental Annual Report, and the Ofwat Annual
Report. Staff of the Unit also advised the Clerk of our Committee
about Supplementary Estimates produced during the year, and about
Defra's proposal to alter the way in which its Estimate is presented.
We continue to be strongly supportive of the work of the Scrutiny
Unit, which complements our own staff"[156]
(EFRA Committee);
- "the task of examining the Main and Supplementary
Estimates… is a complex and specialist one and so we have
worked closely with the Scrutiny Unit, harnessing their technical
expertise in financial matters, to conduct a more detailed and
comprehensive audit of the Department's Vote"[157]
(Work and Pensions Committee).
81. Although this Report covers only its first
full year of operation, it is evident that the Scrutiny Unit has
already had a significant beneficial impact on the work of committees,
contributing substantially to better examination of expenditure
and draft legislation by committees.
Review of select committee resources
82. As we noted last year, following a recommendation
of our Chairman, a review was undertaken into the specialist and
other support staff resources available to committees. The resulting
report found that levels of committee activity had increased,
and were likely to increase further, but that resources had not
risen commensurately. The report recommended that the numbers
of staff in the Committee Office be increased so that, on average,
each departmental committee would receive 1.5 extra members of
staff, to assist them with inquiry management and administrative
functions.
83. The House of Commons Commission approved the
implementation of the review and it is being phased in over the
current and the following two financial years. The first additional
Committee Specialists have been appointed, as have new Inquiry
Managers on secondment from the House of Commons Library; additional
administrative staff will be taking up posts very soon. We
very much welcome the provision of additional staff for committee
secretariats resulting from the Review of Select Committee Resources.
Expectations of what committees should do are—rightly—being
raised by the existence of the core tasks, and the increasing
numbers of draft bills being subjected to pre-legislative scrutiny.
It is right that committees should have the resources to meet
those expectations.
84. Taken together, the introduction of the Scrutiny
Unit and the implementation of the Review of Select Committee
Resources means that select committees are receiving their most
significant increase in resources for over twenty years, which
we welcome. We shall continue to take a close interest to ensure
that adequate support is available to committees to enable them
to carry out their work effectively. When the current Review has
been fully implemented, there should be a system of regular review
updates, to ensure that select committees are never again expected
to carry out evolving duties with out-of-date resource allocations.
The time gap between reports of reviews should never exceed five
years.
Current costs of select committee
work
85. Comprehensive details of expenditure attributable
to individual select committees are included in the Sessional
Return for Session 2002-03.[158]
Overall the costs of select committee work in the financial year
2002-03 can be estimated as follows:
