Surf Wiki
Save to docs
geography/united-kingdom

From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Committee of Selection (House of Commons)

Select Committee of the House of Commons

Summary

Select Committee of the House of Commons

The Committee of Selection is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Unlike the Commons' other select committees, the Committee of Selection exists by virtue of the House's Standing Orders for Private Business, its rules for bills that affect only specific organizations or individuals. Despite that, the committee is best known for appointing members of committees established under resolutions of the House and the Standing Orders for Public Business.

Members of the Committee of Selection are nominated by a motion tabled and moved by a member of the Government. In the same way, the Government also nominates members to the Liaison Committee, the Committee on Standards, the Committee of Privileges, and committees established by a temporary standing order, although on occasion the Committee of Selection has been tasked with performing such nominations. As the Committee of Selection is not covered by Standing Order No. 122B, its chair is chosen by the members of the committee itself unless the House orders otherwise.

After the non-Chair members of other select committees have been chosen via elections within each party, a motion setting out membership of each committee is tabled and moved on behalf of the Committee of Selection by one of its members.

With few exceptions, notably the Committee of Selection itself, the standards committee, the privileges committee and the Liaison Committee, only members of the committee acting on its behalf may nominate new members to committees or propose the discharge of members. Appointments to select committees are made through motions put before the House of Commons, while appointments to general committees (such as public bill committees) are made by the committee's own authority. With respect to private business, all private bills are automatically referred to the committee, which in turn either refers unopposed bills to the Unopposed Bill Committee and refers opposed bills to committees whose members it also appoints.

Role in the selection of public bill committees

The Committee of Selection performs a crucial, yet often overlooked function in scrutinising legislation. The current structure of the committee is dominated by party whips. This means that the government effectively chooses which MPs will scrutinise its bills. Advocates of reform highlight that the current organisation of the committee means that MPs who are subject specialists or may hold views contrary to the leadership of their party can be kept off public bill committees. Suggested reforms include limiting the number of whips that can serve on the committee and allowing MPs a vote on public bill committee nominations.

Current members

Members are elected at the beginning of each session. As of October 2024 the committee's membership is as follows:

MemberPartyConstituency
Labour Party (UK)}}"Jessica Morden MP (chair)Labour
Labour Party (UK)}}"Nesil Caliskan MPLabour
Labour Party (UK)}}"Vicky Foxcroft MPLabour
Labour Party (UK)}}"Lilian Greenwood MPLabour
Conservative Party (UK)}}"Rebecca Harris MPConservative
Conservative Party (UK)}}"Paul Holmes MPConservative
Labour Party (UK)}}"Gen Kitchen MPLabour
Liberal Democrats (UK)}}"Tom Morrison MPLiberal Democrats
Conservative Party (UK)}}"Joy Morrissey MPConservative
Labour Party (UK)}}"Mark Tami MPLabour

Changes since 2024

DateOutgoing Member
& PartyConstituency→New Member
& PartyConstituencySource
nowrap9 September 2025Labour Party (UK)}}"Chris Elmore MP (Labour)Bridgend→Labour Party (UK)}}"Lilian Greenwood MP (Labour)
nowrap9 September 2025Labour Party (UK)}}"Samantha Dixon MP (Labour)Chester North and Neston→Labour Party (UK)}}"Nesil Caliskan MP (Labour)
nowrap9 September 2025Labour Party (UK)}}"Jeff Smith MP (Labour)Manchester Withington→Labour Party (UK)}}"Gen Kitchen MP (Labour)

Former members

2019-2024

MemberPartyConstituency
Conservative Party (UK)}}"Bill Wiggin MP (chair)Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)}}"Jo Churchill MPConservative
Labour Party (UK)}}"Chris Elmore MPLabour
Conservative Party (UK)}}"Nigel Huddleston MPConservative
Labour Party (UK)}}"Lilian Greenwood MPLabour
Conservative Party (UK)}}"Rebecca Harris MPConservative
Labour Party (UK)}}"Mark Tami MPLabour
Scottish National Party}}"Richard Thomson MPScottish National Party
Conservative Party (UK)}}"Craig Whittaker MPConservative

2017-2019

MemberPartyConstituency
Conservative Party (UK)}}"Bill Wiggin MP (Chair)Conservative
Labour Party (UK)}}"Alan Campbell MPLabour
Conservative Party (UK)}}"Jackie Doyle-Price MPConservative
Conservative Party (UK)}}"David Evennett MPConservative
Conservative Party (UK)}}"Anne Milton MPConservative
Labour Party (UK)}}"Jessica Morden MPLabour
Conservative Party (UK)}}"Julian Smith MPConservative
Labour Party (UK)}}"Mark Tami MPLabour
Scottish National Party}}"Owen Thompson MPScottish National Party

2015-2017

MemberPartyConstituency
Conservative Party (UK)}}"Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP (Chair)Conservative
Labour Party (UK)}}"Heidi Alexander MPLabour
Labour Party (UK)}}"Tom Blenkinsop MPLabour
Labour Party (UK)}}"Alan Campbell MPLabour
Conservative Party (UK)}}"David Evennett MPConservative
Conservative Party (UK)}}"Greg Hands MPConservative
Liberal Democrats (UK)}}"Mark Hunter MPLiberal Democrat
Conservative Party (UK)}}"Anne Milton MPConservative
Labour Party (UK)}}"Mark Tami MPLabour

2010-2015

MemberPartyConstituency
Conservative Party (UK)}}"Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP (Chair)Conservative
Labour Party (UK)}}"Heidi Alexander MPLabour
Labour Party (UK)}}"Tom Blenkinsop MPLabour
Labour Party (UK)}}"Alan Campbell MPLabour
Conservative Party (UK)}}"David Evennett MPConservative
Liberal Democrats (UK)}}"Mark Hunter MPLiberal Democrat
Conservative Party (UK)}}"Anne Milton MPConservative
Conservative Party (UK)}}"John Randall MPConservative
Labour Party (UK)}}"Mark Tami MPLabour

2005-2010

MemberPartyConstituency
Labour Party (UK)}}"Rosemary McKenna MP (Chair)Labour

References

References

  1. [https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmstords/441/pvtbs15.htm#a123 House of Commons Standing Order (Private Business) 109–111]
  2. "Nomination of members".
  3. (2024-05-23). "Standing Orders of the House of Commons (Public Business) 2024".
  4. "Election of Chairs by the House".
  5. (2024-08-08). "Election of select committee chairs and members in the House of Commons".
  6. [https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmstords.htm Standing Orders (Public Business) 85 & 86]
  7. [https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmselect/cmpolcon/82/8203.htm House of Commons – Political and Constitutional Reform Committee – Revisiting Rebuilding the House: the impact of the Wright reforms ]
  8. "Committee of Selection". UK Parliament.
  9. . (28 April 2025). ["Business without Debate Volume 766: debated on Monday 28 April 2025"](https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2025-04-28/debates/DB655019-BE12-47CF-9777-D08AD5FCAAA6/BusinessWithoutDebate). *UK Hansard*.
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

select-committees-of-the-british-house-of-commons
Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Committee of Selection (House of Commons) — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report