The House of Commons’ Select Committees are now more independent of government: but are they any better informed?

MPs exert their most effective influence on UK public policy via the network of select committees in the Commons that monitor each Whitehall department and the cross-departmental Public Accounts Committee. Last boosted in 1979 by the Thatcher administration, select committees have just won enhanced autonomy from government and party control, with the election of their chairs and choice of their members by all MPs. But Patrick Dunleavy and Chris Gilson argue that they also need to increase their salience in attracting MPs’ attention, and to urgently find a better way of researching the implementation issues they investigate.