Now that ratio changes to 6:3:2, giving Labour an overall majority of only one.However, in a little-noticed sleight of hand the whips have increased the size of several key committees including Treasury, Home Affairs, Foreign Affairs and Defence. A new Scrutiny Unit was established in 2002, the committees have their own press office and around 50 new staff have been dedicated to select committee work. And since 1979, when the departmental committee system was first created, their record has been patchy at best.Two sets of developments offer new opportunities in this Parliament. Provided, that is, MPs are willing to use them.First, committees are now better-resourced than ever. We know what to expect from whips, but we have a right to expect more from MPs.The performance of the select committees, when they finally get underway, will be a weathervane for parliamentary effectiveness in this respect.
Enabling MPs to work as cross-party teams away from the party political pantomime of the chamber, the committees offer a far more thorough form of scrutiny than anywhere else in Parliament.Yet it is the behaviour of MPs that determines how well they work. And filling the committees is a complex task, like trying to complete 30 inter-related Sudoku puzzles simultaneously. But what's more concerning than the behaviour of the whips is the fact that virtually no MP has made a fuss about this gaping hole in parliamentary accountability.Government will not willingly make life more difficult for itself - that's why Parliament exists. Only three have been able to start inquiries before the summer break; the rest will wait until the autumn. Given that the committees last met in March, this means a seven-month lay-off in Parliament's central function of holding ministers to account. Much of the blame for the delay is aimed at government whips, who claim practical difficulties rather than conspiracy. But, as the House broke yesterday for a summer recess that will stretch until mid-October, there are few signs that such thoughts are bothering many MPs. Ten weeks after the election, the committees - the main means of scrutinising government departments - were finally established last Wednesday.
Dispiriting evidence lies in the saga of the setting up of Parliament's select committees. A smaller Labour majority and a clutch of new politicians should have changed that. The Commons has the chance to prove it is still an effective institution. Parliament has taken a lot of stick during the past eight years for its failure to challenge government. That I think is the right concept for the role of the Commission. We alone can persuade the member states to live up to their responsibilities..
