A Milestone on the Road of Reform

A big milestone has been passed in the process of reform of the House of Commons with the election of the Chairs of the departmental Select Committees this week. And it's good news and bad news for those who want to see a real difference in the way Parliament works.

First, the bad news from that point of view. Several Chairs from the previous Parliament have returned to their Committees in this: Keith Vaz (Home Affairs), Alan Beith (Justice) and James Arbuthnot (Defence) are the main examples. Without attempting a detailed appreciation of their strengths and weaknesses as Committee Chairs on this occasion (maybe another time!), the fact that three such important Committees continue under the same leadership hardly implies a wholesale revolution in the way that Committees operate. Secondly, one third of the new Committee Chairs were elected unopposed. The Liberal Democrats were only allocated two Committees and appear to have organised matters so as to avoid an election in both cases. Or perhaps they just did not have enough backbench MPs with the time to spare, what with being in government and all. But it implies a continuing role for the party managers in the new system. Barry Sheerman, indeed, claimed that Labour Whips had operated against him in the election. Perhaps there is bound to be an element of sour grapes in losers' comments. Nevertheless it is the case that in addition to the Chairs who have not changed, several of the winners look like people who might well have been selected by the Whips under the old system: Graham Allen (Political and Constitutional Reform), Tim Yeo (Energy and Climate Change) and Stephen Dorrell (Health) might all fall into this category.

And now the good news: there are some refreshing results in the mix. Margaret Hodge, scraping in as the first female Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, for one. She may have promised to start her work by looking at allegations that the Labour government spent recklessly before leaving office, but it is certain she will soon move on to the way that cuts are made by the Lib-Con government. So no major party will be immune from PAC criticism over the next few months and years. Neither she nor Andrew Tyrie, who beat the favourite Michael Fallon to chair the Treasury Committee, will be particularly comfortable figures for Ministers to face across the Committee room. Andrew Tyrie was a member of the Wright Committee which recommended elections for Committee Chairs. Before he knew that he had been successful, he commented in the Guardian:

"It's been intriguing to see MPs asking each other for support across party lines, rather than simply looking upwards to the whips for patronage. The culture is changing. Backbenchers of all parties are realising that they have a lot to gain from these elections."

Well, something to gain, perhaps. The next step is the election of the members of the Committees, which will take place within the Parliamentary parties, by methods which they will decide. I understand the Labour party for one has not yet worked out how it will do it. Perhaps the Lib Dems will simply come up with a generally agreed list, as they seem to have done for their Chairs. However it is done, it needs to be done soon to keep up the momentum. We need to make progress towards the next milestone. And let's hope there will be more new faces as Committee members.