2 A Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry
into Iraq?
6. The Government by Inquiry Report concluded
that where the Government is unwilling to undertake an inquiry
into an important matter itself, Parliament should be able to
do so. This would ensure that the Executive could be held to account
by Parliament for its actions—given that governments have
an inherent interest in not setting up inquiries that could result
in politically embarrassing or awkward findings for them. Sir
Menzies Campbell told us how a parliamentary inquiry into Iraq,
for example, would serve the interests of parliamentary accountability:
If [parliamentary] supremacy really is constitutionally
sustainable, then one of the ways in which Parliament can assert
it is by holding the Executive to account in a much more systematic
way, and a mechanism for that would undoubtedly be an inquiry…I
think the principle of Parliament being entitled to hold the Executive
to account ought to be sufficiently strong in our constitutional
arrangements to allow Parliament to create an inquiry of the kind
that pretty well all of us have agreed is necessary.[6]
7. Inquiries initiated by Parliament are especially
suitable for investigating topics that have a political dimension.
As we have already observed, it is more legitimate and serves
the interests of accountability more effectively for Parliament,
rather than the Executive, to inquire into the actions of executive
government. Where politically sensitive subjects are concerned,
parliamentary inquiries are also preferable to judicial ones.
Lord Woolf told our predecessor Committee that in his view it
was not appropriate for judges to be involved in the inquiry process
when politically contentious matters were being considered, due
to concerns about the possible politicisation of the judiciary.[7]
8. An additional rationale for having a parliamentary
inquiry into a politically contentious issue such as Iraq is on
the grounds that it could help restore public trust in Parliament.
This was put to us by Adam Price, who told us that:
…it would be a very, very important step
in terms of restoring some of the lost trust and credibility among
the public in Parliament [and] in the political process for us
to have a parliamentary revolt, if you like, against the Executive
on this issue and for Parliament to decide that it wants to initiate
its own investigation.[8]
9. Our exploration of calls for an inquiry
into the Iraq war indicates that there is still a need—unmet
since an earlier investigation by this Committee—for Parliament
to be able to initiate and conduct inquiries of its own. Inquiries
with the imprimatur of Parliament would have the legitimacy to
ensure that the Executive could be held to account effectively.
Select committees do an excellent job of holding the Government
to account in their particular spheres of operation. We believe,
however, that there needs to be a broader parliamentary mechanism
for establishing inquiries into matters of the highest significance
and greatest public concern. We therefore repeat the recommendation
made by our predecessor Committee that Parliament should be able
to set up a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry whenever it wishes
to investigate important matters of this nature that involve the
scrutiny of government actions.
6 Q 3 Back
7
Government by Inquiry, para 187 Back
8
Q 2 [Mr Price] Back
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