The Home Affairs Select Committee is a departmental select committee of the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

in the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace ...

Remit

The Home Affairs Committee is one of the House of Commons select committees related to government departments: its terms of reference are to examine "the expenditure, administration, and policy of the

Home Office The Home Office (HO), also known (especially in official papers and when referred to in Parliament) as the Home Department, is the United Kingdom's interior ministry. It is responsible for public safety and policing, border security, immigr ...

and its associated public bodies". The committee chooses its own subjects of inquiry, within the overall terms of reference. It invites written evidence from interested parties and holds public evidence sessions, usually in committee rooms at the House of Commons, although it does have the power to meet away from Westminster. At the end of each inquiry, the committee will normally agree on a report based on the evidence received. Such reports are published and made available on the internet. Reports usually contain recommendations to the government and other bodies. By convention, the government responds to reports within about two months of publication. These responses are also published.

Inquiries

Recent inquiries have included: *

Brexit Brexit (, a portmanteau of "Britain" and "Exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February ...

-related preparations *

Counter-terrorism Counterterrorism (alternatively spelled: counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, relates to the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, businesses, and intelligence agencies use to co ...

*Domestic abuse *

Hate crime Hate crime (also known as bias crime) in criminal law involves a standard offence (such as an assault, murder) with an added element of bias against a victim (individual or group of individuals) because of their physical appearance or perceived ...

and its violent consequences *

Immigration detention Immigration detention is the policy and practice of incarcerating both foreign national asylum seekers/refugees and immigrants — whether suspected of unauthorized arrival, illegal entry, visa violations, as well as those subject to deportation ...

Islamophobia Islamophobia is the irrational fear of, hostility towards, or hatred against the religion of Islam or Muslims in general. Islamophobia is primarily a form of religious or cultural bigotry; and people who harbour such sentiments often stereot ...

Modern slavery Contemporary slavery, also sometimes known as modern slavery or neo-slavery, refers to institutional slavery that continues to exist in the 21st century. Estimates of the number of enslaved people range from around 38 million to 49.6 million, d ...

*Policing for the future * Windrush children

Membership

Membership of the committee is as follows:

2019–2024 Parliament

The chair was elected on 27 January 2020, with the members of the committee being announced on 2 March 2020.

Changes 2019-2024

2017–2019 Parliament

The chair was elected on 12 July 2017, with the members of the committee being announced on 11 September 2017.

Changes 2017–2019

2015–2017 Parliament

The chair was elected on 18 June 2015, with members being announced on 8 July 2015.

Changes 2015–2017

2010–2015 Parliament

The chair was elected on 10 June 2010, with members being announced on 12 July 2010.

Changes 2010–2015

Changes

Occasionally, the House of Commons orders changes to be made in terms of membership of select committees, as proposed by the Committee of Selection. Such changes are shown below.

Chairs of the Home Affairs Select Committee

Election results

From June 2010 chairs of select committees have been directly elected by a secret ballot of the whole House of Commons using the

alternative vote Instant-runoff voting (IRV; ranked-choice voting (RCV), preferential voting, alternative vote) is a single-winner ranked voting election system where one or more eliminations are used to simulate runoff elections. When no candidate has a ...

system. Candidates with the fewest votes are eliminated and their votes redistributed until one remaining candidate has more than half of valid votes. Elections are held at the beginning of a parliament or in the event of a vacancy.

References

External links

Records of the Home Affairs Committee are held at the Parliamentary Archives

Home Affairs Committee
{{UKParliamentCommittees Select Committees of the British House of Commons Home Office (United Kingdom)