The Political and Constitutional Reform Select Committee was a
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 ...
from 2010 to 2015.
Remit
The committee was created in response to changes to the machinery of government intended to give the
Deputy Prime Minister
A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a Minister (government), government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to th ...
,
Nick Clegg
Sir Nicholas William Peter Clegg (born 7 January 1967) is a British retired politician and media executive who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2015 and as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2007 to 2015. H ...
, responsibility for political and constitutional reform. The functions given to the Deputy Prime Minister were as follows:
* Introducing
fixed-term Parliaments
* Legislating to hold a referendum on the
alternative vote system for the House of Commons and to create fewer and more equal sized constituencies, see
Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011
The Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 (c. 1) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that made provision for the holding of a referendum on whether to introduce the Alternative Vote system in all future general e ...
* Supporting people with disabilities in becoming MPs
* Introducing a power for people to recall their MPs
* Developing proposals for a wholly or mainly elected second chamber
* Speeding up implementation of individual voter registration
* Considering the "
West Lothian question"
* Introducing a statutory register of lobbyists
* Reforming party funding
* Supporting all postal primaries
In addition, the Deputy Prime Minister had ministerial responsibility for the
Boundary Commissions
A boundary commission is a legal entity that determines borders of nations, states, constituencies.
Notable boundary commissions have included:
* Afghan Boundary Commission, an Anglo-Russian Boundary Commission, of 1885 and 1893, delineated the no ...
, the
Electoral Commission
An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...
, and the
Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority.
House of Commons Debates 2 June 2010 vol 510 cc22–3ws
/ref> All these matters were within the remit of the committee.
Membership
As of 30 March 2015, the membership of the committee was as follows:
Source
Political and Constitutional Reform Committee
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.
See also
* Parliamentary Committees of the United Kingdom
References
{{reflist
External links
Political and Constitutional Reform Committee
Records for this Committee are held at the Parliamentary Archives
Defunct Select Committees of the British House of Commons
2010 establishments in the United Kingdom
Reform in the United Kingdom
Politics of the United Kingdom
Constitution of the United Kingdom
2015 disestablishments in the United Kingdom