Two Weaknesses of Departmental select Committees

Question 1

One strength. Part One

Answer 1

One weakness of departmental select committees is that ministers and civil servants might not provide much information when questioned by a committee and access to sensitive material can be denied on grounds of national security.

Question 2

One strength. Part Two

Answer 2

This is a weakness as the committees cannot force a witness to answer questions posed to them. If a witness deliberately gives vague or misleading answers, they cannot be sanctioned, as committees hold no such power.

Question 3

One strength. Part Three

Answer 3

An example of this is when the culture, media and sports select committee couldn’t do more than strongly criticize Tom Crone and Colin Myler for misleading the committee over phone hacking during the committee’s inquiry into press standards in 2009-2010.

Question 4

Second Strength. Part One

Answer 4

A second weakness is while the government must issue a formal response on recommendations made within the committees within 60 days, they aren’t obliged to accept those recommendation, a study done by the constitution unit in 2011 found that the government don’t accept up to 60% of recommendations.

Question 5

Second strength. Part two

Answer 5

This is a weakness as departmental select committees don’t have the power to enforce decisions and recommendations with economics professor George Jones stating that committees “serve little purpose with no means of forcing the government to act on their recommendations.