Assessing the Influence of Select Committees in the UK: The Education and Skills Committee, 1997-2005

Many recent reports on the UK parliament have paid tribute to the House of Commons' Select Committees. Select Committees have limited formal powers. But as a rare source of ‘unbiased information, rational debate, and constructive ideas’, ministers are nevertheless said to heed their advice routinely. The evidence used to support expressions of this argument is, however, largely anecdotal. This paper offers a more formal assessment of the influence of the Education and Skills Committee through a mixture of proxy empirical measures of influence and interviews with committee members, ministers and officials. These indicators do not constitute a flawless measure of committee influence. They can, however, help progress the existing debate on committee influence.