Backbench Rights and Reform in the UK House of Commons Departmental Select Committee System: The Emerging Leadership Role of Chairs and the Impact of Government/Opposition Status

This paper explores the particular institutional context of the departmental select committee system in the UK Parliament, and the extent to which it expands the opportunities for influence of backbench MPs with respect to the resources and powers enjoyed by the committees. In particular, it seeks to examine the way in which the role of committee chair is utilised in different ways by MPs of the governing and opposition parties as an institutional resource. In 2010, the House of Commons approved reforms which enabled select committee members and chairs to be elected by the House for the first time, and this paper probes the extent to which this has impacted on the institutional role of committee chairs, and whether chairs behave differently in the role depending on their majority/minority status. It does this through analysis of select committee activity in terms of chair participation, through examination of parliamentary Hansard records, and interviews with chairs themselves, to illuminate the extent to which these committee chairs perceive themselves as possessing ‘leadership capacity’ as a result of the shift to election of members. By probing how these recent changes came about, what they mean for the institutional ‘strength’ of actors such as committee chairs, and how chairs use their particular role strategically (or not), this paper illuminates how and why rights and resources have changed at Westminster, how minority/majority status in the legislature affects use of those rights/capacities, and what this means for the evolution of the select committee system as a key backbench and opposition institution in parliament.