Established in 1947, Parliamentary Affairs is the Hansard Society’s quarterly journal covering all aspects of representation and politics connected to parliaments and legislatures in the UK and around the world. The journal is published in partnership with Oxford University Press.
Parliamentary Affairs blog
Select Committee development and reform: turning points over 40 years
Select committee reform over the last 40 years has been a stop-go process. Here, the Clerk of the Liaison Committee during its recent 40th anniversary inquiry traces the phases in the story and identifies the set of factors that seem to work for or against reform each time.
Select Committees 40 years on: wider still and wider may their bounds be set?
A former Clerk of several House of Commons select committees looks back over 30 years at how the tempo of their work has changed, and asks whether the increase in their resources and activities can or should continue indefinitely.
The 2019 Liaison Committee report on the Commons select committee system: broadening the church, integrating with the Chamber
In its recent landmark report, the House of Commons Liaison Committee recommended a widening of the circle of those that select committees should hold to account, and a turn towards the public in all committee activity, but also tighter links between select committees and the House of Commons Chamber.
The increased stature of select committees and their chairs: reflections by Harriet Harman MP
On the 40th anniversary of the creation of departmental select committees, Harriet Harman, the longest continuously-serving woman MP, offers some personal reflections on the growing importance of select committees and their chairs, particularly at a time of considerable political instability.
Canada’s ‘amateur’ MPs
In Canada, the ‘professional politician’ remains the exception rather than the rule, and MPs with prior political experience don’t have an advantage in the development of their parliamentary careers.
Twitter highlights from the launch of ‘Britain Votes 2017’
To mark the launch of ‘Britain Votes 2017’, the first major study of the 2017 general election, five of the book’s contributors - including polling guru Professor Sir John Curtice - outlined their findings at an event on 20 March at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Here are the evening’s top tweets.
In 1979, the UK House of Commons approved the appointment of 12 select committees “to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the principal government departments”.
Forty years on, the select committee system in the House of Commons has evolved to become one of the key features of our parliamentary democracy, spreading its scrutiny into public life beyond Whitehall, and widening the channels of engagement with Parliament and its Members.
To mark the 40th anniversary of the creation of the first departmental select committees in June – and of the nominations of their inaugural members on 26 November – the latest special issue of Parliamentary Affairs brings together leading researchers and practitioners, with experience at the forefront of the select committee system, to analyse and explore the past, present and future of one of the major reforms in UK parliamentary history.
To celebrate the publication of the special issue, we are making a number of articles available for free for a limited time.
- Select Committee Reform: Shifting the Balance and Pushing the Boundaries – Lucinda Maer
- A Means to an End and an End in Itself: Select Committee Membership, Parliamentary Roles and Parliamentary Careers, 1979–Present – Stephen McKay, Mark Goodwin, Stephen Holden Bates
- Chairing UK Select Committees: Walking Between Friends and Foes – Emma Crewe, Nicholas Sarra
- The Territorial Select Committees, 40 Years On – David Torrance, Adam Evans
- Select Committees: Agents of Change – Adam Mellows-Facer, Chloe Challender, Paul Evans
- Select Committees and Brexit: Parliamentary Influence in a Divisive Policy Area – Philip Lynch, Richard Whitaker
- How Public Engagement Became a Core Part of the House of Commons Select Committees – Aileen Walker, Naomi Jurczak, Catherine Bochel, Cristina Leston-Bandeira
Established in 1947, Parliamentary Affairs is a leading, peer-reviewed journal with a distinguished record of linking the theory and conduct of parliament and politics.
The journal offers rigorous and readable examinations of a wide range of parliaments and political processes, by authors from across the globe, on subjects which are both of academic interest and relevant to current policy debates.
Quick facts
- Impact factor: 1.798
- Global impact factor: 1.636
- Editors: Professors Cristina Leston-Bandeira and Jonathan Tonge
Editions (2018-present)
Professor Cristina Leston-Bandeira
Cristina Leston-Bandeira is Professor of Politics at the University of Leeds, Co-Director of the University’s Centre for Democratic Engagement, and Chair of the UK Study of Parliament Group. Cristina’s work focuses on parliaments and public engagement, and she was one of eight members of the Commission on Digital Democracy set up by the former Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow.
Professor Jonathan Tonge
Jonathan Tonge is Professor of Politics at the University of Liverpool. He has authored and edited numerous books on UK political parties, elections, and the politics of Northern Ireland, has co-edited Parliamentary Affairs since 2012, and is a former Chair of the Political Studies Association.