---

Administration Committee

Before the Leader of the House gets too far into the detail of all these motions, will he address an item of principle? It is the role of the House to create departmental Select Committees, whose role is to hold the Government to account. Does he not feel that it is bordering on the politically corrupt for the Government to have such an important influence on selecting the members of those departmental Select Committees? Will he therefore take the chance, after today’s debate, to look again at involving Members on both sides of the House in considering whether we could have a better system, perhaps one that involves the election of the members of departmental Select Committees by their colleagues in the House, rather than one that persists in allowing the very organisation that is meant to be scrutinised to have the right to put Members on to the departmental Select Committees of the House?