House of Commons - The Speaker's Committee - Third Report

Select Committee on The Speaker's Committee Third Report

Speaker's Committee Third Report, 2007

Introduction

1. The Speaker's Committee is appointed in accordance with the provisions of section 2 of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (PPERA) to perform the functions conferred on it by that Act. A summary of the principal statutory functions of the Committee is given in Appendix 1.

2. By virtue of the provisions of paragraph 1(1) of Schedule 2, PPERA, the Speaker's Committee is required to report to the House of Commons periodically on the exercise by it of its functions. This report is a general report by it on the exercise of its functions from the start of the current Parliament to 30 November 2007.

3. Appendix 2 gives details of the membership of the Committee over the period covered by this report. There have been three changes of membership in the period covered by the current report: Mr Gary Streeter was appointed by the Speaker in March 2006 to replace Mrs Angela Browning, who had resigned from the Committee, and in November 2007, the Prime Minister appointed Mr John Healey in place of Mr Phil Woolas, who he had succeeded as Minister for Local Government. The Rt. Hon Jack Straw, MP, became an ex-officio member in June 2007, in succession to the Rt. Hon. Lord Falconer of Thoroton, on his appointment as Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor.

4. The Committee met seven times in the long 2005-06 Parliamentary Session and three times in the 2006-07 Session. The minutes of the meetings last two meetings in 2005-06, and all those in 2006-07 are reproduced at Appendix 3. The Chairman and officials of the Electoral Commission attended parts of these meetings, at the invitation of the Committee, as necessary.

5. The principal business, besides reviewing generally the work of the Electoral Commission, was consideration of its Main Estimates for 2006-07 and 2007-08, and the accompanying Five Year Plans. The Committee has also completed its review of the Electoral Commission; contributed to the inquiry by the Committee on Standards in Public Life into the Commission; and been involved in the reappointment of a number of Electoral Commissioners and, more recently, in the appointment of a number of new Commissioners.

6. In May 2006, the Committee agreed to establish an informal sub-committee, for the purpose of identifying key issues on which the Committee might focus. The membership is Mr Peter Viggers, who is also its Chairman, Mr Humfrey Malins and Mr Phil Woolas.[1] It has met on three occasions, twice in relation to the Committee's review of the Electoral Commission and once in preparation for the Committee's consideration of the 2007-08 Estimate and the accompanying Five Year plan.

Parliamentary Accountability

7. Mr Peter Viggers continues in this Parliament as the member appointed by the Committee to answer parliamentary questions on its behalf. The number of Parliamentary Questions tabled to the Committee has continued to increase substantially. In the 2005-06 Session, 36 parliamentary questions were tabled to the Committee for oral answer in the House in the four-weekly periods of fifteen minutes shared with the Church Commissioners and the Public Accounts Commission, of which 26 received oral answers. The corresponding figures for the 2006-07 Session are 28 and 20 respectively. In addition, Mr Viggers answered 57 written questions in all in the 2005-06 Session and 87 in the 2006-07 Session.

8. Over this period, it has become established practice for questions in the House of Commons which are tabled to Ministers seeking information on the work of the Electoral Commission to be transferred to the Speaker's Committee for answer, in recognition of the independence of the Electoral Commission.

9. The first general debate to be devoted specifically to the work of the Electoral Commission was held on 3 July 2006, using as a vehicle the Commission's Estimate for 2006-07 and the device of an Estimates Day. The Committee is grateful to the Liaison Committee for selecting the Estimate for debate: the independence of the Commission from Government means that the principal means by which Members of the House can initiate debates cannot be used to secure a debate specifically on the work of the Commission.

Resourcing of the Electoral Commission

10. The process of agreeing the Commission's 2006-07 Estimate was complicated by the need to anticipate the likely impact of additional resource requirements arising from enactment of the Electoral Administration Bill, which was still going through Parliament at the time the Estimate had to be agreed. The Net Resource Requirement of £26.180 million for 2006-07 finally agreed also reflected significant economies identified by the Commission in the course of consideration of the Estimate.

11. The 2007-08 Estimate process was the first in which the House of Commons Scrutiny Unit assisted in analysing the Commission's Estimate and the accompanying Plan. It also broke new ground in that an overall four-year financial framework, with the bulk of Commission expenditure capped in resource terms for that period, formed part of the settlement and is reflected in the Commission's five-year plan. Estimates remain subject to annual agreement, and the Net Resource Requirement for 2007-08 (and the resource cap for the three following financial years) set by the Committee is £23.995 million.

Other matters

12. In the period covered by this report, there have been two statutory reports from the Comptroller and Auditor General on the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which the Electoral Commission discharged its duties. The first, entitled 'Is the public aware of democracy?' was the subject of a formal presentation to us in July 2006. It was published in the Committee's First Report 2006[2] The second, entitled 'Electoral registration: The lynchpin of democracy' was considered by us in June 2007, and published in the Committee's Second Report 2007[3].

13. The Committee published its response to the report of the Committee on Standards in Public Life on the Electoral Commission, addressing principally the recommendations addressed to the Committee, in July 2007 in its First Report 2007[4]. The Committee was pleased to see from the Government Response to the CSPL Report that there is agreement between the Government and the Committee on recommendations of mutual interest.

1 Until he ceased to be a member of the Committee. Back

2 HC 1581, Session 2005-06. Back

3 HC 997, Session 2006-07 Back

4 HC 996, Session 2006-07 Back

© Parliamentary copyright 2008
Prepared 18 February 2008