Blogs and Briefings
Select Committees thrive in “age of scrutiny”
Connect’s Peter Barrett sees Keith Vaz address the LSE on all things Home Affairs
19 October
“This is the age of Parliamentary scrutiny” asserts Keith Vaz. “If it takes the visit of a Rupert Murdoch or the resignation of a Metropolitan Police Commissioner for people to see how Select Committees work, then so be it”.
My Connect colleague Ben Wright and I went along last night to hear Keith Vaz address an audience at the LSE on his role as Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee. The event, entitled What’s Next for the Home Affairs Select Committee, serves as both a preview of things to come and a review of what has proven to be an eventful summer for both Vaz’s committee, and for his colleagues at Culture, Media and Sport.
Vaz’s Home Affairs Select Committee – “the only Select Committee to be untouched by the recent Labour frontbench reshuffle” - has “renewed vigour”. In truth, the scrutinising role of all Select Committees would, it seems, be even greater if Vaz were made king for the day. He allocated a great deal of his talk to championing the model of American Congressional Committees, the US equivalent of Parliamentary Select Committees, which come equipped with the kind of staff numbers, budgets and resources that would make British MPs’ eyes water.
Vaz is quick to point out, however, that Westminster will never move towards the Washington model as long as political parties rule the roost in Parliament. Select Committee chairs have, in Vaz’s eyes, historically been too wary of criticising the Government for fear of undermining any future ministerial careers they might otherwise have.
However, with Committee chairs now being elected by all MPs, Vaz believes there is a greater mandate for Committees and their chairs to hold the government to account. Gone are the days of the Committee producing a rather weighty report and then leaving the Government to draw its own conclusions about whether or not to act on recommendations within. Vaz wants to track the Government’s response to committees’ recommendations, and hold them accountable for lack of action or poor response.
He uses the example of the UK Border Agency to highlight how the Home Affairs Committee is seeking to strengthen its scrutiny of the executive. The Committee has drawn up over 100 “key indicators of success” that the Committee will review every four months. Vaz’s aim, he says, is “create an RPI of government performance on immigration” that can be monitored continually.
Quentin Letts may lambast the Home Affairs Committee for “chasing headlines” along populist lines, but for Vaz the Committee is mandated to address precisely those issues that do matter to the wider electorate.
A closing question from the floor allows Vaz to reiterate his determination to see greater and more effective scrutiny of the Government. Should Tom Watson resign from the DCMS Committee now he’s been elected Deputy Chair of the Labour Party? “No, Tom’s work on News International and phone hacking is just too important. Mind you, John Whittingdale would probably disagree with me”.
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