Introduction: What are Parliamentary Committees?

Parliamentary committees consist of groups of Members of Parliament (MPs) which are established by parliament to carry out specific tasks or functions that are committed to them. Committees are established for a variety of purposes. One of the most obvious is that a committee permits parliament to stretch its resources both in terms of people and of time to inquire into issues in ways that the full House would find cumbersome. In addition a less adversarial atmosphere might be found in a committee than in the full House of Members, which aids reaching a consensus on issues. In these smaller groups Members can also utilize or develop expertise in the committee specialty. Experts can also be called to committee meetings allowing parliament to apply skills that cannot be utilized during plenary sessions. An increasing number of parliaments hold their committee meetings open to the public and may also allow for input from the public through various mechanisms to increase citizen engagement. All this explains that meetings of committees, while attempting to observe the usual standards of parliamentary debate, can proceed more informally and expeditiously than plenary sessions and benefit from the relationships that develop among persons working together in order to achieve common objectives.

While most committees are made up of small numbers of MPs, parliament may also use the device of meeting as a Committee of the Whole House, during which all Members of Parliament may attend. This happens in cases of great importance or urgency or to save time in the consideration of non-controversial legislation.

The work delegated by the House to committees usually relates, as will be detailed later, to the examination of bills, the scrutiny of the operations of the executive or the investigation of some issue of public concern.