It is frequently claimed that the House of Commons’ select committees have grown in prominence since key reforms were implemented in 2010. In a blog originally posted by Democratic Audit Brian J. Gaines, Mark Goodwin, Stephen Holden Bates and Gisela Sin test this claim specifically in relation to press coverage. They find a pattern of increased newspaper attention after the reforms, but caution that these results show no consistent sustained increase, and also vary considerably depending on committee.
Tag: House of Commons
Dr Sarah Wollaston, Chair of the Liaison Committee, discusses its new report into how the system of select committees can operate more effectively, both in terms of their place within the House of Commons and their external impact, in a blog originally posted on The Constitution Unit. New ways of working and more powers are suggested, such as taking a ‘digital first’ approach to reports and formalising formalising further the arrangements for the Prime Minister to appear before the Liaison Committee.
Data on Members of Parliament is notoriously non-standardised and difficult to sift through. That’s why Dr. Larissa Peixoto Gomes is sharing her database on the House of Commons.
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Electing a new Speaker: what happens next?
After over ten years as Speaker, John Bercow has announced his intention to stand down at the end of October. As for who will replace him, that is unclear and will be decided by an election amongst MPs, several of whom have already declared their candidacy. But how does that election work? Mark Bennister offers a guide to the process.
Aristotle Kallis, Keele University, places the recent prorogation of the UK Parliament in historical context.
Stephen Holden Bates (University of Birmingham), Mark Goodwin (Coventry University) and Steve McKay (University of Lincoln) discuss opening up their select committee data archive for open access research.
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Who is watching Parliament?
Ben Worthy discusses his new Leverhulme research project on parliamentary data.
David Judge writes that, while much of the discussion around Brexit and Parliament is about procedure and conventions, it should also be about the bigger picture: what does Brexit tell us about the fundamental principles of the UK’s parliamentary state and representative democracy?
Professor Gavin Drewry discusses the role of the Study of Parliament Group in the development of specialist select committees in the House of Commons.
In the third part of their trilogy examining sessional return data, Stephen Holden Bates (University of Birmingham), Mark Goodwin (Coventry University), Steve McKay (University of Lincoln) and Wang Leung Ting (LSE) explore government responses to departmental select committees.