Committees

Select committees should leave Westminster bubble more often

30 November 2015

Do more work outside London, hold more informal evidence sessions, support engagement from non-traditional communities, and involve people more in selecting topics for committee inquiries – these are just some of the proposals made in research published by the House of Commons Liaison Committee.

The report "Building public engagement" was commissioned by the Liaison Committee in the previous Parliament to look at how committees have responded to this new 'core task' – assist the House of Commons in better engaging with the public by ensuring that the work of the committee is accessible to the public – and to identify further ways in which they can improve the quality of their work by strengthening opportunities for participation.

The authors are Professor Matthew Flinders and Leanne-Marie Cotter of the Sir Bernard Crick centre at the University of Sheffield, and Ian Marsh, Visiting Professor at Sydney University of Technology Business School. The research is launched at the ESRC Knowledge Exchange Event on Monday 30 November 2015 organised by Democracy Matters, where Science and Technology Committee Chair Nicola Blackwood is speaking (Local Government Association, 5.30 – 7.30 pm).

The report says that public engagement is not an 'after-thought' or 'add-on' to day-to-day activities, but a core way of undertaking scrutiny and oversight while also building public confidence. Engaging with communities – whether professional, geographic, cultural, or virtual – to discover their concerns and agendas or to establish their responses to government initiated reviews or decisions is likely to enhance not only the standard of that committee's activity, but also its subsequent influence on Government.

Recommendations

Key recommendations include:

  • Involve the public in topic selection, using a range of online and offline platforms
  • Adopt a programme of informal committee activity and visits, use intermediaries or rapporteurs, and emphasise listening skills above talking powers
  • Use pre-existing networks to increase breadth and depth of engagement
  • Evolve from interrogation of witnesses towards deliberation with witnesses: this is crucial in forming relationships and engaging with people who feel disconnected
  • Think more creatively about how issues are broached in committee sessions, about who can ask questions, about how social media can be used to widen and multiply engagements and possibly even about how forms of deliberative democracy might be commissioned to feed into the work of a committee
  • Political expression can take many forms: consider accepting submissions of evidence in the form of short videos or recorded conversations

Comments

Meg Hillier MP, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee and member of the Speaker's Commission on Digital Democracy, said:

"Public opinion surveys suggest that people love democracy but don't like politics. As the report says, research shows that increasingly, people engage with single issues rather than party programmes, and many people feel that there should be more to democracy than casting a vote every five years.  Most of all, they want a politics which is less distant. Select committees provide a unique opportunity to 'do politics differently', and we welcome the challenges set for us by this report.

In the past two years there have been some great examples of innovation by individual committees. We have stepped up our efforts to involve a wider range of people in our work, and to make it clear that committees are transparent and accessible, as well as impartial and evidence-based. Anyone can suggest topics for inquiry, or provide evidence – but not everyone realises this and we need to do even more both to get that across, and to help people contribute to our work. Strengthening public engagement increases both its quality and effectiveness – and our ability to hold government to account."

Professor Matthew Flinders said:

"The gap that seems to have emerged between the governors and the governed will only be closed if our political institutions evolve towards cultivating new and closer relationships with the public. This research shows that several select committees have recognised this and have gone to great lengths to engage with lots of different groups and communities in different ways. But progress has been sporadic and generally limited to specific committees.

Parliament must now work to embed public engagement within the culture of the House and to adopt a more systematic approach. The time has come for select committees to take some risks, to be creative and to operate beyond Westminster."

Background

The Liaison Committee consist of all the Chairs of Select Committees. Its role includes considering general matters relating to the work of select committees – agreeing guidelines and core tasks for committees and promoting effective scrutiny.

The report "Building public engagement: Options for developing select committee outreach" was commissioned by the Liaison Committee. Authors: Matthew Flinders, Ian Marsh and Leanne-Marie Cotter, with support from Tom Healey, funded by Professor ADH Crook Public Service Fellowship Scheme and the University of Sheffield Economic and Social Research Council Impact Accelerator Account. 

Further information

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