Select Committee on Liaison First Report


4 Committee Activity and Resources

Select committee activity



72. Figure 1 and the appended Table 1 show that there has been relatively little change in the number of committee meetings, other than that associated with the length of session. The total number of meetings fell marginally in Session 2002-03, but the number per sitting week (shown by the line in Figure 1) increased. The total number of public meetings in Session 2002-03 was the highest since 1997-98 and the number per sitting week was the highest in any year shown.


73. The number of substantive committee reports published reached another new high of 350 in Session 2002-03. Figure 2 and Table 2 (appended) show that in the last year the number produced by other scrutiny and "departmental/admin committees" fell, but this was more than made up by the 35% increase in reports published by departmental committees. Both the total number and the average per sitting week in 2002-03 were above the equivalent figures for the second session of the last Parliament.Table 1: Select committee meetings by session, 1997-98 to 2002-03
Departmental select committees
Other scrutiny committees
Domestic/admin committees
All committees
All meetings of which public (a) All meetings of which public (a) All meetings of which public (a) All meetings of which public (a)
Number
1997-98 959 617 240 81 279 24 1,478 722
1998-99 756 478 230 117 168 14 1,154 609
1999-00 803 535 191 65 166 16 1,160 616
2000-01 339 197 117 51 81 5 537 253
2001-02 801 496 292 118 219 15 1,312 629
2002-03 798 567 295 132 152 13 1,245 712
Rate per sitting week (b)
1997-98 18.4 11.9 4.6 1.6 5.4 0.5 28.4 13.9
1998-99 21.6 13.7 6.6 3.3 4.8 0.4 33.0 17.4
1999-00 20.1 13.4 4.8 1.6 4.2 0.4 29.0 15.4
2000-01 17.8 10.4 6.2 2.7 4.3 0.3 28.3 13.3
2001-02 17.8 11.0 6.5 2.6 4.9 0.3 29.2 14.0
2002-03 21.0 14.9 7.8 3.5 4.0 0.3 32.8 18.7

(a) Meetings at which oral evidence was taken wholly in public

(b) Weeks where the House of Commons sat for at least two days, excluding emergency recalls

Departmental select committees: Committees (and sub-committees) shadowing government departments or functions/initiatives performed by those departments.

Other scrutiny committees: Public Accounts, Joint Committee on Human Rights, European Scrutiny Committee, the Statutory Instruments Committees, Regulatory Reform Committee, Environmental Audit, Consolidation, Tax Law Rewrite Bills and ad hoc Bill Committees.

Domestic/admin committees: Apart from the Domestic Committees, this includes: Standards and Privileges, Procedure, Liaison, Selection, Modernisation Committees etc.

Source: Sessional Returns, Sessions 1997-98 to 2002-03Table 2: Substantive committee reports published by session, 1997-98 to 2002-03
Departmental

select committees

Other scrutiny

committees

Domestic/admin

committees

All committees
Number
1997-98 112 177 32 321
1998-99 134 118 26 278
1999-00 134 123 32 289
2000-01 122 57 16 195
2001-02 119 201 19 339
2002-03 161 173 16 350
Rate per sitting week(a)
1997-98 2.2 3.4 0.6 6.2
1998-99 3.8 3.4 0.7 7.9
1999-00 3.4 3.1 0.8 7.2
2000-01 6.4 3.0 0.8 10.3
2001-02 2.6 4.5 0.4 7.5
2002-03 4.2 4.6 0.4 9.2

(a) Weeks where the House of Commons sat for at least two days, excluding emergency recalls

Departmental select committees: Committees (and sub-committees) shadowing government departments or functions/initiatives performed by those departments.

Other scrutiny committees: Public Accounts, Joint Committee on Human Rights, European Scrutiny Committee, the Statutory Instruments Committees, Regulatory Reform Committee, Environmental Audit, Consolidation, Tax Law Rewrite Bills and ad hoc Bill Committees.

Domestic/admin committees: Apart from the Domestic Committees, this includes: Standards and Privileges, Procedure, Liaison, Selection, Modernisation Committees etc.

Source: Sessional Returns, Sessions 1997-98 to 2002-03

Committee resources

74. Faced with this high level of activity, committees need adequate resources to be able to function effectively. This requires committee secretariats of sufficient size and ability to meet committees' demand, and provision of in-House expertise. We now look at developments in these areas.

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:

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:
£ million
Staff Costs7.0
Select Committee Expenses 2.2
Printing and Publishing Costs 1.4
TOTAL10.6

86. As noted above, the full effect of the Review of Select Committee Resources has not yet been achieved. At present,[159] the Committee Office has a complement of some 176 staff reinforced by 34 full-time equivalents in other Offices, which we consider a modest level of support for select committee work. The estimated total annual cost compares very favourably with costs of outside inquiries, and contrasts with the £430 billion[160] of Government expenditure which committees need to monitor.


155   HC (2003-04) 317, para 8 Back

156   HC (2003-04) 225, para 30 Back

157   HC (2003-04) 227, para 21 Back

158   HC 1 of Session 2003-04. See Section 10C, General Statistics Relating to Select Committees, pp 327-339 Back

159   As at 8 March 2004 Back

160   The gross total of resource expenditure for which Supply authority has been sought in 2003-04 (including spring supplementary estimate), less machinery of government changes. Back


 
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