Our work in the 2010-2015 Parliament - Public Administration Contents


1  Introduction

1. The Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) is made up of 11 MPs from the three largest parties represented in the House of Commons. We have two main roles: to examine the reports of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman[1]; 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. In this, we differ from departmental Select Committees because we look at the work of the Civil Service as a whole, rather than at particular departments. We also scrutinise the work of the Cabinet Office and its agencies and public bodies, and other public bodies, including:

·  the Charities Commission;

·  the UK Statistics Authority;

·  the House of Lords Appointments Commission;

·  the Commissioner for Public Appointments; and

·  the Committee on Standards in Public Life.

2. During the 2010-2015 Parliament, we conducted 60 inquiries on a range of issues, from the accountability of quangos and public bodies, to complaints and clinical failure in the health service and the impartiality of the civil service during referendums. We have conducted 'big picture' inquiries into the strategic challenges facing the Civil Service such as Strategic thinking in Government, as well as holding pre-appointment hearings and one-off evidence sessions.[2] We have also scrutinised Government policies in other areas under the jurisdiction of the Cabinet Office; such as the 'Big Society', the honours system, Government procurement (and in particular the procurement of IT equipment and software), and charity law.

3. We have received written and oral evidence from a wide range of people and organisations and we are grateful for the time and effort they have taken to contribute to our work, which would not have been possible without their generosity. Analysis has shown that our witnesses were not as gender balanced as for some other Select Committees, and we hope that our successor Committee will address this in the next Parliament.

4. Before 2010, our predecessor Committees also covered the subject matter which has been, for the last five years, under the remit of the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee. The Political and Constitutional Reform Committee was established under a temporary House of Commons Standing Order in order to scrutinise the responsibilities of the Deputy Prime Minister. This included such topics as the referendum on electoral reform and House of Lords reform, which were put on the agenda by the coalition agreement. By implication the Deputy Prime Minister's responsibilities were removed from PASC's remit.

5. We conclude that the establishment of the Select Committee on Political and Constitutional Reform has enabled PASC to concentrate its effort on a narrower remit, albeit with more limited resources. The disadvantage has been the dislocation of our work where our respective remits overlap, on such subjects as the Cabinet Manual, the effects of the Fixed Term Parliaments Act, devolution and decentralisation, and other changes in the UK constitution which affect the nature of government.

6. As the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee will cease to exist we therefore recommend that its remit be returned to PASC in the new Parliament, so long as PASC is given sufficient resources to support the full burden of its restored remit.

7. The table below sets out some headline figures regarding our work:
Session 2010-12 Session 2012-13 Session 2013-14Session 2014-15 Total
Meetings82 4441 31198
Reports24 915 755
Special Reports2 58 621
Witnesses173 111140 109533
Number of evidence sessions 6241 3325 161

8. In addition to our formal publications and correspondence, the Committee has an active Twitter account (@CommonsPASC) with more than 2,000 followers. Our work regularly generates interest among members of the public, including civil servants, complainants and others, as well as in the media. We are one of the most watched parliamentary Committees, with more than 225,000 online views of our evidence sessions from 2010 to the end of 2015.

9. Key developments since 2010 which have affected our work include:

·  the Government's extensive Civil Service reform programme, arguably the broadest such reform programme since 1968, which has been pursued in a context of severe financial challenge and shrinking headcounts, leading to decreased funding for the bodies we scrutinise;[3]

·  public bodies reforms, which have been significant, leading to a decline in aggregate in the number of public bodies and their staff numbers and funding, but which have not been co-ordinated with wider Civil Service reforms and health reforms;[4]

·  changes in the role and remit of the Cabinet Secretary, who is now again also Head of the Civil Service;

·  the appointment of non-executive directors in Government departments;

·  the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 recognised the Civil Service Code and established the Civil Service Commission on a statutory basis; and

·  the continuing failure of the Cabinet Office-funded Iraq Inquiry to publish a report on its work.


1   Technically, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration and the Health Service Commissioner for England. House of Commons Standing Orders, December 2013, S.O. No. 146 Back

2   Public Administration Select Committee, Twenty-Fourth Report of Session 2010-12, Strategic thinking in Government: without National Strategy, can viable Government strategy emerge?, HC 1625, April 2012 Back

3   National Audit Office, Memorandum on the 2012 Civil Service Reform Plan, HC 915, January 2013 Back

4   Public Administration Select Committee, First Report of Session 2014-15, Who's accountable? Relationships between Government and arm's-length bodies, HC 110, November 2015 Back


 
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© Parliamentary copyright 2015
Prepared 28 March 2015