Working with select committees
Select committees are cross-party groups of MPs or Lords (or both, in some instances) and are one of Parliament’s main tools for holding government to account.
Engagement with select committees is a key part of the LGA’s parliamentary work, with the LGA by far the most called on organisation to give evidence to their inquiries.
Select committees are chaired by backbench MPs and the chairs are chosen at the beginning of each Parliament.
The majority of select committees mirror government departments, and run inquiries and evidence sessions to explore topical issues and hold ministers to account.
Parliamentary rules state that the balance of committee chairs should reflect the party balance in the House of Commons. Following July’s general election, Labour were assigned 18 committee chairs, the Conservatives were granted five, and the Liberal Democrats were given three.
The election of the new chairs of the Commons’ select committees took place last month, and with so many new MPs elected to Parliament there was a battle between long-serving members and fresh faces keen to make their mark.
LGA Vice-President Florence Eshalomi MP was elected Chair of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee.
The LGA has a good relationship with her, which should stand us in good stead to influence the work of her committee once future inquiries get under way, particularly on devolution, housing and planning, and local government funding.
Elsewhere, another LGA Vice-President, Layla Moran MP, has been elected Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee.
The committee will no doubt be scrutinising the Government’s mission to build an NHS fit for the future, including plans for a national care service, and the LGA will be contributing to future inquiries.
Helen Hayes MP, an LGA Vice-President and former councillor, is the new Education Select Committee Chair. She previously served on the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, and was a Shadow Minister for Children and Early Years in the last Parliament, so understands many of the challenges facing councils in maintaining their responsibilities for protecting children and young people.
The LGA is calling for the committee’s inquiry into children’s social care to be extended to this Parliament.
Dame Karen Bradley MP, former Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, and for Northern Ireland, was elected Chair of the Home Affairs Committee and will be responsible for scrutinising the Government’s plans on crime and policing, asylum and migration.
See the full list of those elected as select committee chairs on the UK Parliament website. The members of each committee will be confirmed in October, once each party has decided who will represent it on each committee.
The LGA is in the process of writing to the committee chairs to outline councils’ priorities for their communities in this new Parliament. We will also be engaging with the clerk of each committee to better understand their upcoming agendas and where the LGA and councils can contribute to these.
There are a number of new or continuing inquiries to which we will be contributing evidence, including the Science and Technology Committee’s inquiry on digital skills, and the House of Lords’ Built Environment Committee’s on the grey belt.
- To find out more about the LGA’s work in Parliament, please visit our website.
