Meg Russell gives oral evidence on committee effectiveness before the Scottish Parliament

The Director of the Constitution Unit, Professor Meg Russell, gave oral evidence to the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee at the Scottish Parliament on 20 March. She did this alongside Gemma Diamond from Audit Scotland, Dr Marc Geddes from the University of Edinburgh, journalist Brian Taylor and Sir David Natzler, who was Clerk of the House of Commons between 2015 and 2019 and is now an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Constitution Unit.

The Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee is currently holding an inquiry into committee effectiveness. It expects to report in autumn 2025.

Professor Russell started by emphasising that committee effectiveness can come in lots of different forms. Drawing on her previous work, she argued that effectiveness includes not just recommendations being accepted, but also gathering and publicising evidence and encouraging evidence-based and cross-party approaches that can have a wider impact on the parliament's culture and how it is perceived by the public.

She said that a key aspect of Westminster select committees 'is the conception that these are very non-partisan, cross-party bodies', which can give them a different image to parliament in general. She suggested that the public like the cross-party nature of committees and that this positive view can become self-reinforcing, in terms of encouraging committee members to work that way. She discussed how factors such as resources, size and levels of membership turnover on a committee, as well as members going on visits together, can create help create what one academic dubbed 'committee cohesion'. This does not necessarily have to rival, but more productively can sit alongside, political party cohesion. This may most easily be formed during investigative work, rather than work on legislation, which is often more party political.

Professor Russell was also questioned about the role of the media, which she suggested is useful to raise the profile of committees and communicate their conclusions, but can distract from the substance of detailed scrutiny if committees give too much priority to pursuing eye-catching witnesses or topics.

The selection of committee chairs and convenors was also discussed. Professor Russell agreed with other witnesses that electing chairs (as the House of Commons select committees have done since 2010) can have positive effects. They can make chairs feel more legitimate and accountable to the whole chamber, and raise their public profile and the profile of committees as a whole.

Finally, Professor Russell encouraged committees not just to move on after completing an inquiry and making recommendations, but to evaluate the success of their previous inquiries and find out how things have developed.

A full recording of Professor Russell's appearance can be found below.

YouTube Widget Placeholderhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkiwjTC2onE

Key links:

• Meg Russell gives oral evidence on committee effectiveness – watch the oral evidence session.
• Committee effectiveness – find out more about the committee's inquiry.
• The Impact of House of Commons Select Committees – read about Meg's research into House of Commons select committees from 2011.