ABSTRACT
The use of committees by the United Kingdom Parliament, and its predecessors, has hardly ever been systematic: its history has been one of the haphazard adaptation of existing forms to suit the exigencies of the moment. Its principal feature – the distinction between Standing Committees, which debate public legislation, and Select Committees, which scrutinise the activity of government – is one which has arisen partly as a result of historical accident, although it has become overlain with elements of a theoretical justification drawn from the principle of ministerial responsibility, and the need for Parliament to scrutinise the exercise of that responsibility.
