SELECT COMMITTEE SYSTEM
General Description
2. The scope of the Select Committee system of the House of Commons has varied from time to time. The significance of the title is that the Committee's membership is "selected" for a particular task, generally of enquiry. The main practical House distinction lies between such Committees, with their role of investigation and scrutiny, and "Standing Committees", concerned with the examination of particular legislation and with their procedure based on debate rather than the taking of evidence. Most Select Committees (hereafter referred to as "Committees")
· are embodied in the Standing Orders of the House. Others are on a sessional basis, and can be established and their work completed within a matter of weeks or months. Some are Committees with a purely House function (eg the Committee of Selection), with which Departments will not normally come into contact. The principal Commons Select Committees with which this memorandum is concerned are those related to Government Departments (see paragraph 4); the Public Accounts Committee; the Committee on the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration; the Committee on European Legislation; and the Services Committee
(concerned with House administration). Certain coordinating functions on behalf of the various Commons Committees are carried out by the Liaison Committee; the normal Government contact with this is through the Leader of the House and the Government Chief Whip.
3. The House of Lords has two major Select Committees - the European Communities Committee and the Science and Technology Committee which are re-appointed at the beginning of every session. Both Committees have sub-committees and there is power to co-opt additional members to these sub-committees. In addition, there is generally one ad-hoc Select Committee in the Lords, also appointed on a sessional basis, which undertakes enquiries into matters of policy, or into Private Members Bills (Overseas Trade and the Infant Life Preservation Bill are recent examples). Ad-hoc Select Committees do not have sub-committees, they cease to exist once they have reported, and now rarely last more than one session. All these Committees take oral and written evidence from Departments. The terms of reference of the Lords Select Committees are set out in the sessional order of the House which appoints them. Additionally, the terms of reference for specific inquiries by Sub-committees of the Science and Technology Committee are determined by the Select Committee itself. Lords Committees have an inherent power to send for witnesses. Documents are produced voluntarily. An Order of the House would be required to compel witnesses to attend or produce papers and none has in recent times been necessary.
Committees Related to Government Departments
4.
The House of Commons Committees related to Government Departments and the principal Departments concerned are:
Agriculture
Defence
Education, Science
and Arts
Ministry of Agriculture,
Fisheries and Food Ministry of Defence Department of Education
and Science
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