1 Introduction
1. This report reviews the activities of the Public
Administration Select Committee in the parliamentary session 2008-09,
which ran from 3 December 2008 to 12 November 2009. The focus
of the Committee's work is on the consistency and coherence of
government policy and practice across the entire field of public
administration. Our inquiries have reflected the broad scope of
the Committee's remit
to examine the reports of the Parliamentary Commissioner
for Administration and of the Health Service Commissioner for
England, which are laid before this House, and matters in connection
therewith and to consider matters relating to the quality and
standards of administration provided by civil service departments,
and other matters relating to the civil service.[1]
2. The past Session has seen us report on three major
inquiries, on Lobbying, Good Government and Leaks and Whistleblowing
in Whitehall, with recommendations that cut across the entire
work of Government.
3. Although we are not a departmental Committee,
we scrutinise the work of the Cabinet Office and its associated
public bodies. We also examine specific issues arising out of
our broad oversight of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration
and Health Service Ombudsman (the Ombudsman), and the UK Statistics
Authority. This has been particularly true over the last year,
during which we have challenged the Government's decision to reject
many of the findings of the Ombudsman's reports into Equitable
Life and scrutinised the release of knife crime statistics by
the Home Office.
4. This Session we have had three major policy achievements.
The Civil Service clauses of the Constitutional Reform and Governance
Bill follow our long-running campaign to put Civil Service values
and their oversight on a statutory footing. In July 2009 the Government
announced it would adopt an entitlement-based approach to the
delivery of public services broadly in line with our 2008 report
From Citizen's Charter to Public Service Guarantees: Entitlements
to Public Services. Finally, the Government has, after some
initial hesitation, allowed the independent inquiry into the Iraq
war to be held predominantly in public, in line with our arguments,
and those of others.
1 Standing Orders of the House of Commons S.O. No 146 Back
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