Winning candidates for select committee Chairs announced
18 June 2015
Nominations for chairs of the 26 elected select committees and the chair of the Backbench Business Committee closed on Wednesday 10 June and elections were held by secret ballot on Wednesday 17 June 2015.
No ballot was necessary for 11 committees for which a single nomination had been received, as follows:
| Committee | Elected |
| Communities & Local Government | Mr Clive Betts |
| Energy & Climate Change | Angus Brendan MacNeil |
| Environment, Food & Rural Affairs | Neil Parish |
| Northern Ireland Affairs | Mr Laurence Robertson |
| Procedure | Mr Charles Walker |
| Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs | Mr Bernard Jenkin |
| Scottish Affairs | Pete Wishart |
| Standards | Kevin Barron |
| Transport | Mrs Louise Ellman |
| Treasury | Mr Andrew Tyrie |
| Welsh Affairs | David T.C Davies |
| Women and Equalities | Mrs Maria Miller |
In the contested elections, a total of 621 ballot papers were submitted, the ballots being counted under the Alternative Vote system. The following candidates were elected:
| Committee: | Elected: |
| Backbench Business | Ian Mearns |
| Business, Innovation & Skills | Iain Wright |
| Culture, Media & Sport | Jesse Norman |
| Defence | Dr Julian Lewis |
| Education | Neil Carmichael |
| Environmental Audit | Huw Irranca-Davies |
| Foreign Affairs | Crispin Blunt |
| Health | Dr Sarah Wollaston |
| Home Affairs | Keith Vaz |
| International Development | Stephen Twigg |
| Justice | Robert Neill |
| Petitions | Helen Jones |
| Public Accounts | Meg Hillier |
| Science & Technology | Nicola Blackwood |
| Work & Pensions | Frank Field |
The full breakdown of voting in each contest, indicating the votes attributable to each candidate after each redistribution of the votes of eliminated candidates, is set out in the document below.
The next step 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. Further details of this next round will be announced shortly.
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.