Nominations now received for every committee
8 June 2015
With one day to go before nominations close, all select committees with an elected chair have now received at least one nomination. All the nominations received so far are listed on the relevant committee pages below. Nominations will remain open until 5pm Wednesday 10 June.
Nominations received
- Backbench Business Committee
- Business, Innovation and Skills Committee
- Communities and Local Government Committee
- Culture, Media and Sport Committee
- Defence Committee
- Education Committee
- Energy and Climate Change Committee
- Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
- Environmental Audit Committee
- Foreign Affairs Committee
- Health Committee
- Home Affairs Committee
- International Development Committee
- Justice Committee
- Northern Ireland Affairs Committee
- Petitions Committee
- Procedure Committee
- Public Accounts Committee
- Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee
- Science and Technology Committee
- Scottish Affairs Committee
- Standards Committee
- Transport Committee
- Treasury Committee
- Welsh Affairs Committee
- Women and Equalities Committee
- Work and Pensions Committee
Nominations will remain open until 5pm Weds 10th June. The ballot to elect new select committee chairs will be held a week later, between 10am and 5pm on Wednesday 17 June.
The next step after the election of Chairs will be the election of the other members of each select committee, also by secret ballot, by the parties which have an allocated number of seats on each committee. The number of seats each party gets on each committee is allocated in proportion to their representation in the House of Commons as a whole.
Background
The 2010-15 Parliament was the first which saw select committee Chairs elected by a secret ballot of all Members of the House of Commons, following the recommendations of the Select Committee on Reform of the House of Commons set up in 2009. The Political and Constitutional Reform Committee report on the Wright Reforms as they have come to be known, cited broad support for the idea that the introduction of election for committee members and chairs has been particularly important in reinforcing committees' credibility, authority and legitimacy. It also said there is "clear evidence that these more self-confident select committees have increased their media impact".
The Chair of each select committee is drawn from a specific party. A list of which committees have been allocated to each party is available in Hansard.
To be nominated for election as Chair, a Member (from the relevant party) must provide a signed statement declaring their willingness to stand, supported by the signatures of 15 Members of their party, or 10% of the Members of that party, whichever is lower. Members also have the option of providing the signatures of 5 Members from another party or no party.
An election will also be held for the post of Chair of the Backbench Business Committee, which allocates time for debates suggested by backbench Members.