Select Committees

In today's 'Governing the UK' AS Politics lesson, a sheet was handed out detailing some excellent examples of how select committees have been successful in scrutinising and calling the government to account.

A copy of the article can be found here for those who would like to investigate the work of select committees further.

House of Commons changes

A series of reforms have been voted through the House of Commons that may help to address the problem of an over-mighty executive. These include: the election of the chairs of select committees by secret ballot, the appointment of an opposition party member to the important Public Accounts Committee and a new backbench committee which will set a timetable for Commons business. Here is the BBC report of the changes and here is the Commons Reform Committee's website.