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Chair (Terminology)

Following the main debate on House of Commons reform 10 days ago, which was widely regarded as a very good debate, the main purpose of today's debate is simply to pave the way for the votes that will shortly follow. For that reason, I shall keep my remarks brief, but I do wish to emphasise strongly how critical it is that the House, on a cross-party basis and preferably with a substantial majority, endorses the two main recommendations of the Reform of the House of Commons Committee, which was as everyone knows chaired so ably by my hon. Friend the Member for Cannock Chase (Dr. Wright). In politics it is almost never the case that something is "now or never", but it is certainly true that we have at this time a unique conjunction of events in favour of these reforms that is unlikely to return for a long time. No one can doubt the damage that has been done to the House's reputation by the expenses scandal. The opportunity that has now opened up to retrieve our standing, by making Parliament a more democratic, responsive and effective institution, is a priceless opportunity which we should grasp eagerly and enthusiastically. Indeed, I have often thought that, terrible though the expenses fiasco was, it was less of an indictment of this place than the insidious and systematic erosion, over recent decades, of Parliament's fundamental rationale, which is to hold the Executive effectively to account. Especially over the past three decades, there has been a steady and growing centralisation of power in the hands of the Executive in general and of No. 10 in particular, and that relationship badly needs rebalancing. Today is a historic opportunity to begin to do that. The two main proposals before us—giving the House ownership of its Select Committees via the process of election, and reclaiming for the House control of its own business—are certainly not revolutionary. Actually, they are quite modest. However, they are also extremely important. Unquestionably, the Select Committees are the most effective means by which the House holds Ministers to account, and it is crucial that membership should be determined by the House and not by those who might have an interest in making that scrutiny rather more amenable to the powers that be, which defeats the object of the exercise. For the House to regain control of its own business is a sine qua non of any effective, functioning Chamber. In a previous debate, hon. Members objected that the Government might be prevented from having time to get their business through and thus their accountability to the electorate would be undermined, but the reform Committee's proposals make it clear that that is not the case, that the Government would still be guaranteed the time to get their own business through, and that the object of the reform is that Members of the House should have the right and the opportunity to determine the agenda for the rest of the time in respect of non-Government business.