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    Parliamentary Affairs: special issue on '40 years of departmental select committees in the House of Commons' (vol 72, issue 4, 2019)

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    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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    Articles

    Articles available to read for free are marked with a star (☆).

    Introduction

    • Departmental Select Committees: The Reform of the Century? – Philip Norton

    Pre-history and development

    • Reform and Consolidation: A New Perspective on Commons Select Committees 1960–1980 – Philip Aylett
    • Select Committee Reform: Shifting the Balance and Pushing the Boundaries – Lucinda Maer
    • The National Audit Office and the Select Committee System 1979–2019 – Henry Midgley

    The actors and their roles

    • 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
    • Performing Scrutiny along the Committee Corridor of the UK House of Commons – Marc Geddes
    • (☆) Chairing UK Select Committees: Walking Between Friends and Foes (☆) [Open access] – Emma Crewe, Nicholas Sarra

    Changing focus

    • The Territorial Select Committees, 40 Years On – David Torrance, Adam Evans
    • Select Committees: Understanding and Regulating the Emergence of the ‘Topical Inquiry’ – Craig Prescott
    • Select Committees: Agents of Change – Adam Mellows-Facer, Chloe Challender, Paul Evans
    • (☆) Select Committees and Brexit: Parliamentary Influence in a Divisive Policy Area (☆) [Open access] – Philip Lynch, Richard Whitaker

    Involving the audience: participation and engagement

    • Between Diversity, Representation and ‘Best Evidence’: Rethinking Select Committee Evidence-Gathering Practices – Danielle Beswick, Stephen Elstub
    • How Public Engagement Became a Core Part of the House of Commons Select Committees – Aileen Walker, Naomi Jurczak, Catherine Bochel, Cristina Leston-Bandeira

    Reviewing the performance of scrutiny

    • Conclusion: So, What Is Good Scrutiny Good For? – Paul Evans

    Practitioner: The 2019 University of Oxford Bingham Lecture

    • Is the House of Commons Too Powerful? The 2019 Bingham Lecture in Constitutional Studies, University of Oxford – Philip Norton

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