Select committee inquiries that are of interest to social care provide opportunities for the sector to make its voice heard at Westminster.
In September, the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee launched an inquiry into the rights of older people. MPs will investigate the prevalence of ‘ageist stereotyping and discrimination’ and whether older people’s rights are ‘sufficiently protected in equality law’.
In their call for evidence, MPs made clear that they also intend to look closely at intersectionality – specifically, ways in which ‘sex, sexual orientation, ethnicity and disability status alongside age’ may impact older people and require ‘distinct policy responses’. The committee is accepting evidence until 31 October.
The inquiry is just one of a steady stream of inquiries that are of interest.
One is the influential and high-profile Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which is often running upwards of 30 inquiries ongoing at any one time.
The PAC has just begun an inquiry into effective cross-government working. This will include the effective delivery of ‘complex programmes that cut across different departments’, such as ‘adult social care, rough sleeping and vulnerable families’. The PAC is accepting evidence until 24 November.
What is the select committee system?
Select committees are cross-party groups of backbench MPs or peers elected by their colleagues to scrutinise the work of the government.
All government departments are shadowed by a dedicated House of Commons select committee, but some cross-cutting committees work across departmental boundaries.
Lords select committees do not shadow government departments but mostly cover broad areas of policy – for example, the Public Services Committee.
The House of Lords also appoints non-permanent ad hoc committees to investigate specific issues, as happened in 2022 with the appointment of an Adult Social Care Committee. Its report last December called for urgent ‘social and economic investment’ to enable people with care and support needs to live ‘a gloriously ordinary life’.
And some committees, such as the Joint Committee on Human Rights, draw their members from both the Commons and the Lords.
Effectiveness and impact
The Institute for Government describes select committees as ‘one of Parliament’s main tools for holding government to account’ and as a means for backbench MPs and peers to develop the sort of specialist knowledge that enables ‘deeper and more effective scrutiny’ of government policy and action.
Views vary about the extent of select committees’ influence on government policy. (See, for example: Geddes, 2020; Peckham et al.’s analysis of the Health and Social Care Committee’s innovative ‘expert panels’; and a 2019 report by the Liaison Committee, a unique committee whose membership comprises the chairs of all Commons select committees).
But while acknowledging the difficulty of isolating committees’ influence from that of other actors, an analysis of seven departmental select committees by Benton and Russell (2013) concluded that it was clear they are now ‘an integrated part of the policy-making process’ and ‘taken seriously’. And while accepting the limitations of a quantitative assessment of ‘success’, Benton and Russell also found that as many as 40% of committee recommendations are accepted and implemented by government. These include recommendations calling for ‘substantive change’.
Some recent reports
In July, the Women and Equalities Committee published the findings of its inquiry into so-called honour-based abuse, the committee called for the introduction of a statutory definition of honour-based abuse. Although the government has since rejected the recommendation, the committee’s work may yet contribute to change in the longer term – just as previous committees played their part in securing statutory recognition of children as victims of domestic abuse.
Among other reports published over the summer, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee warned of the growth of technology-facilitated abuse – ‘a form of domestic abuse where perpetrators use technology, including connected devices and social media, to abuse victims and survivors’.
‘Tech abuse’ can extend the reach of perpetrators as they no longer need to be physically present to inflict abuse. The committee heard that most domestic abuse cases now include a ‘cyber element’, such as the use of surveillance apps and other forms of ‘spyware’. Tackling tech abuse must be made a government priority, MPs said.
Current inquiries
Ongoing select committee inquiries include:
- The Women and Equalities Committee is in the latter stages of an inquiry into the National Disability Strategy and is also investigating the escalation of violence against women and girls.
- The Education Committee has begun an inquiry into the effects of screen time on children’s education and wellbeing. The inquiry comes after the committee heard, during an earlier evidence session on child exploitation and county lines, that social media platforms have been used by criminal gangs as a tool for grooming children.
- The Work and Pensions Committee is considering whether the Department for Work and Pensions should be placed under a ‘statutory duty to safeguard the wellbeing of vulnerable claimants’.
- Prevention in health and social care is a long-term inquiry by the Health and Social Care Committee that will separately investigate ten themes chosen from more than 600 suggested by organisations and researchers. As part of its investigation into one of those themes, healthy places, the committee held an evidence session in September on the impact of poor housing on health.
- Disabled people in the housing sector is a Levelling Up Committee inquiry into the role of government, councils and developers in ensuring the delivery of suitable housing for disabled people.
- Lastly, MPs on the Home Affairs Committee are examining how legislation and policy can be improved to help address human trafficking. As part of their inquiry, MPs will consider whether support services are meeting the needs of victims.
Keep up with what’s happening
You can stay up to date with committee activity on the committee news web page.
The Committee Corridor podcast is a weekly podcast that was launched as a pilot in May 2022. Each episode is hosted by a select committee chair and examines an issue that is a focus for a committee inquiry. Episodes include:
- ‘Violence against women and girls’
- ‘Does the Human Rights Act need to be reformed?’
- ‘Modern slavery and the UK’
- ‘Adoption of the children of unmarried mothers from the 1940s to 1970s’.
You can also follow the activity of individual committees here and find links to specific inquiries here.
References
Benton, M., & Russell, M. (2013). Assessing the impact of parliamentary oversight committees: The select committees in the British House of Commons. Parliamentary Affairs, 66(4), 772–797. https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/gss009
Geddes, M. (2020). The webs of belief around ‘evidence’ in legislatures: The case of select committees in the UK House of Commons. Public Administration, 99(1), 40–54. https://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12687
Peckham, S., Dacre, J., Appleby, J., Charlesworth, A., & Francis, R. (2022). Enhancing the scrutiny of select committees: The House of Commons Health and Social Care Select Committee’s new independent expert panel. Parliamentary Affairs. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/gsac025