Meg Russell & Tony Wright give evidence to Procedure Committee about Public Bill Committees
21 June 2013
Within days of publication of our report Fitting the Bill: Bringing
Commons Legislation Committees into Line with Best Practice, the House
of Commons Procedure Committee announced a new inquiry into the
constitution and membership of public bill committees. See here.
The first witnesses were the Unit's Meg Russell (lead author of the report), along with Professor Tony Wright
(also of the School of Public Policy, UCL, and a former MP and chair of
the Reform of the House of Commons committee 2009-10). The session made
extensive reference to the report and its recommendations, discussing
issues such as how members of public bill committees are chosen (and
suggestions that the Committee of Selection might be reformed, and/or
its proposals be put to the chamber for approval), and the merits of
larger-scale reform such as moving towards permanent, specialist
legislation committees of the kind that exist in many other parliaments.
The session can be watched here
