Parliamentary committees and legislative scrutiny

Committees, not the full House, are the real site of cross-party legislative scrutiny. They sit in private and operate outside the party whip. The three financial committees are the Public Accounts Committee (established 1921), the Estimates Committee (1950) and the Committee on Public Undertakings (1964). Twenty-four Departmentally Related Standing Committees, introduced in 1993, examine each ministry's demands for grants and its bills. Select and joint committees are constituted for particular bills. The Public Accounts Committee examines the Comptroller and Auditor-General's reports and by convention is chaired by an opposition member.