Types of Committees

The nomenclature of committees varies greatly within the Commonwealth, even to the extent that the same term may have different meanings in different legislatures. A classification will be attempted in this case, which should be a sufficient base for the purposes of this unit provided that this problem is allowed for in applying the discussion to any particular parliament.

The two epithets that are most commonly applied to committees are ‘standing’ and ‘select’.

In most countries, the term standing committees refers to those committees that are set up to scrutinize bills or to examine delegated legislation, as well as committees that are set up for special purposes, for instance, the Committee on Public Accounts (commonly referred to as the Public Accounts Committee or PAC), or those monitoring the work of government departments. These Committees are most generally established for a parliamentary session but, according to the practice of various legislatures, their life may be as short as the consideration of one specific bill or as long as the life of the parliament.

Select committees are constituted with very specific terms of reference to deal with issues of major public concern. For instance, a parliament may set up a committee to examine a particular bill, to inquire into the behavior of a senior public official, to consider proposals for research on the human embryo or to scrutinize development proposals with wide-ranging objectives or consequences.

Most countries now have committees examining or monitoring the work of government departments. They may fall under either the select or standing committee categories depending on the practice in the country concerned, or they may be described separately as departmental, portfolio or consultative committees. The existence of these committees allows parliament to follow and inquire into the trends of governmental activity as they take shape, instead of being limited to commenting post hoc on the implementation of government policy by the departments they scrutinize. Further, as they inquire into current issues, they can make an important contribution to policy development, possibly ahead of the work of government.

All parliaments have some sort of committee arrangement to advise or assist with their own domestic and administrative concerns. They may include a committee on parliamentary business, a House committee dealing with matters related to the comfort and convenience of Members, a Library Committee, a Catering Committee and so on.

Where parliament consists of two Houses, it is usually possible and efficient to establish joint committees to examine issues affecting both Houses, for instance matters concerning parliamentary privilege.

Most parliaments formally provide for some of their committees to create subcommittees of their membership when this appears to be a sound way to carry out their duties. The Public Accounts Committee is a good example of one that often needs to use this facility to proceed expeditiously and efficiently with its work.

While much of the work of parliamentary committees will relate to the review of bills, they are also entrusted with scrutinizing how the executive implements the law with particular attention paid to accountability. This is referred to as parliamentary scrutiny or oversight of the executive. The theory is that a committee will perform this function using the evidence placed before it in a less adversarial manner resulting in a bipartisan (government/opposition) consultative effort to improve the performance and accountability of the executive.