Select committees in the UK House of Lords: the economic affairs committee

ABSTRACT

The Select Committees of the House of Lords enjoy a high reputation. But is this merited? In particular, do their reports have any effect on real-world policy? A detailed analysis of the work of the Economic Affairs Committee from 2010 to 2014 by Lord Lipsey, a member of the committee, reveals a patchy record though with some striking results, for example, with regard to reform of the ‘Big 4’ auditors. It shows that obtaining press coverage of the committee's reports was central to their subsequent effect on policy-making.

KEYWORDS:

• Economic
• select committee
• media
• clerks
• specialist advisers

Acknowledgements

Just as the work of all such committees depends heavily on its clerks and researchers, so does this paper. The heavy lifting was all done by Ben McNamee the committee's researcher. Opinions and flaws however are down to the author.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

David Lipsey (Lord Lipsey) in his time on the committee was a Labour peer. He is a former political adviser to UK Cabinet ministers Anthony Crosland and James Callaghan and was political editor of the Economist from 1992 to 1999. His academic posts include Visiting Fellow at Department of European Studies, Harvard University; Parliamentary Fellow at St Anthony's Oxford; Visiting Fellow at London School of Economics and Visiting Professor at the Universities of Ulster and Salford. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.

Notes

1. The aim of the Task Force on Shale Gas is to ‘provide a transparent, trusted, independent and impartial platform for public scrutiny, discussion and information about shale gas exploration and production in the UK.’ Although funded by industry, the Task Force says it acts ‘with total impartiality and independence from its funders, and from stakeholders with firmly supportive or firmly opposed views on issues.’