ABSTRACT
The system of departmental Select Committees in the UK Parliament was established, following the report of a Select Committee in 1977-78 (of which I was a member), by the Conservative government in 1979. Opening the debate on the report, the then leader of the House of Commons, Norman St John Stevas, said that this change was ‘The most important parliamentary reform of the century’, intended ‘to redress the balance of power to enable the House of Commons to do more effectively the job it has been elected to do’.
