Constitution and legal experts questioned on select committee powers

• Watch Parliament TV: Select Committees and Contempts
• Inquiry: Select Committees and Contempts
• Committee of Privileges

Witnesses

Tuesday 26 October 2021

At 9.15am

• Professor Tom Hickman QC, Barrister, Blackstone Chambers
• Joshua Rozenberg QC (hon), Legal journalist
• Professor Alison Young, Professor of Public Law, University of Cambridge

At 100.0am

• Paul Evans, former Clerk of Committees, House of Commons
• Mark Hutton, former Clerk of the Journals, House of Commons

The Committee’s preliminary proposals were published earlier this year in a landmark report “Select Committees and contempts: clarifying and strengthening powers to call for persons, papers and records”. The Committee’s report addressed the matter currently referred to it by the House – that of “the exercise and enforcement of the powers of the House in relation to select committees and contempts”.

The public evidence session forms part of a wider consultation on the proposals, ahead of the Committee publishing a final report with recommendations to the House.

The Committee’s report considered different options for how the House could address the issue of the enforcement of select committee powers, recommending new legislation to confirm its historic powers in statute. The report included a draft bill for consultation that would make failure to comply with a summons issued by a select committee a criminal offence, with the person ultimately liable to a fine or imprisonment as determined by the courts.

Further information

• About Parliament: Select committees
• Visiting Parliament: Watch committees

Image: Parliamentary copyright