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PolicyNet
Events
PolicyNet Meeting
6th July 2006, Phil Willis MP,
Chair of the Commons Science and Technology Select
Committee.
On July 6th, Phil Willis MP,
Chair of the Commons Science and Technology Select
Committee, spoke to PolicyNet on “Scrutinising
Government: attitudes of Government to Committee
scrutiny and the quality of its responses”. In
particular Mr Willis focused on the Select
Committees process which, he said, is at the heart
of Government scrutiny. He started his speech
provocatively asking whether Select Committee
scrutiny matters, whether it is effective, makes a
difference or has an impact. Mr Willis pointed out
that when Government policy is ill informed, it
breeds discontent and dissatisfaction in the
parliamentary systems and undermines confidence in
both policy and law makers. And it is in
circumstances such as these that Select Committees
can really make a difference by engaging with
government departments, establishing a dialogue and
trying to inform and change policy and its
implementation. However, each Select Committee is
supported by only a small number of staff, hence
scrutinising the long list of policy issues that
keeps Government busy is challenging. Mr Willis
acknowledged that, in fact, Committees would be able
to scrutinise very little Government policy if they
were unable to rely on the support and all the work
carried out by the learned societies and
non-governmental policy advisors.
Government attitudes to
scrutiny, on the other hand, can be discouraging.
Government departments have to respond to each of
the recommendations in the reports that Committees
produce as a result of enquiries within 60 days.
However, this is no guarantee that the quality of
such response will be appropriate or that Government
will turn Committees’ recommendations into actions.
Nonetheless, when Government appears to ignore or
dismiss the advice of Select Committees, it can
still influence subsequent policy if the issues are
picked up by the non-governmental policy community
or if the Committee engages with the relevant
Government Department persistently until it responds
appropriately. However, success cannot be judged by
Government response alone. Policy advisers, the
media, back benchers, professional and lay groups
etc. are all involved in the impact of the scrutiny
process and its effectiveness.
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