Government accused of ‘dodging scrutiny’ by not setting up Commons select committees for six weeks during crucial Brexit period The process of selecting the make-up of these crucial committees has only just started

The Prime Minister has been accused of “dodging parliamentary scrutiny” after governing for a six-week period without setting up Commons select committees responsible for holding ministers to account.

The make-up of committees, which dissect Government plans and grill ministers, is decided by MPs at the start of a new Parliament and Leader of the House Jacob Rees-Mogg works with party whips to determine the timetable for this.

After the December election MPs voted in favour of the Government’s plan to extend this period to allow for Christmas and possible changes to government departments.

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As a result, the UK is now six weeks into a new Government and the process of electing committee chairs is only just starting.

Delaying Committee elections

Member of the committees also need to be appointed through internal party elections which could last well into February, and could leave Parliament with no scrutiny committees two months after the Government took office.

During this time crucial Brexit-related legislation has already been – and will continue to be – passed through the Houses of Parliament.

A spokesperson for the Commons Leader’s office said that the process for implementing select committee chairs was taken in line with usual procedure.

But acting Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Sir Ed Davey, suggested the Government has done this on purpose so as not to be appropriately “held to account”.

“Once again we see the Conservatives dodging parliamentary scrutiny. Boris Johnson has not only refused to attend select committees, but since then he has been dragging his feet to stop them being set up at all,” he said.

‘Avoiding scrutiny’

“Boris Johnson and his government are pursuing plans that will be damaging and dangerous for our country, which is precisely why they do not want to be held to account and are only now holding the elections of the chairs this Wednesday having postponed them last year.

“This is entirely unacceptable in any healthy democracy and it must be made clear as such. The Liberal Democrats will continue to fight for this Conservative government to be held accountable for their actions.”

A blog post written by Hannah White, Institute for Government, also pointed out that the current timetable would mean any meeting of the important Liaison Committee of select committee chairs would likely not be organised this side of Easter.

“As a result, the Prime Minister won’t have given evidence to that committee at all during the nine months since he moved into 10 Downing Street in July 2019,” she noted.

No-show PM

Mr Johnson was called before the Liaison Committee – made up of the heads of all the other scrutiny committees in the Commons – in October but he sent the chairs a hand-written note the day before he was due to attend saying he would not be coming.

He instead asked for it to be rescheduled for “five or six months” after he had become Prime Minister to give him time to “focus on delivering Brexit”.

Former chair of the Liaison Committee and Tory MP, Dr Sarah Wollaston, replied that she was “astonished that, at such short notice, you are refusing to face detailed scrutiny” for the third time.