To mark the 40th anniversary of the creation of departmental select committees, this special issue of Parliamentary Affairs draws together contibutions from House of Commons officials and leading academics on the past, present and future of one of the most significant reforms to the UK Parliament.
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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.
Mock Elections 2019
Join thousands of young people across the country in one of the oldest and largest civic engagement projects anywhere in the world. Our free resources provide all the materials and guidance you need to recreate the excitement and drama of a real election.
Even with a majority, getting Brexit done on deadline will be no mean feat
Holding a general election only six weeks before the new end-January Brexit deadline, and with a recess to fit in too, could mean the new Parliament facing a tight timetable. The challenge will be especially great for MPs elected for the first time on 12 December.
Parliament and Brexit in Autumn 2019: a constitutional and procedural guide
Stay on top of the key Brexit developments in Parliament this autumn in our regularly updated procedural and constitutional guide.
Scrutiny of Statutory Instruments in the spotlight following Supreme Court judgement
The Supreme Court’s judgement that the government’s prorogation of Parliament was unlawful was due in part to concern that the legislature’s ability to scrutinise Statutory Instruments would be compromised. But as ‘exit day’ nears, and with a new, shorter prorogation planned, the inadequacies of the parliamentary scrutiny process for SIs become ever starker.