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Appointment and nomination

38.2In principle, select committees are established in two stages (in both cases via motions which are debatable and amendable). Firstly, a committee is appointed with an order of reference determining its name, remit, size, powers and duration, etc. Subsequently, specific Members are nominated to serve on it (with, in the case of most of the permanent committees, the Chair elected under a separate process from that of the other committee members).

Accordingly, unless, as is sometimes the case (eg in relation to the nomination of the Chair),1 the motion for appointment makes specific provisions to the contrary in respect of a particular committee, it is not normally in order, on the motion for the appointment of a select committee, to discuss the proposed names of the Members to compose it.2

Footnotes

  1. 1. For example, CJ (1987–88) 423, 429; ibid (2008–09) 571; CJ (2014–15) 202–03 (Select Committee on Governance of the House).
  2. 2. Parl Deb (1880) 252, c 489; for scope of debate on motion for appointing, see HC Deb (1937–38) 337, c 2157; ibid (1938–39) 342, c 906; see also Parl Deb (1905) 146, c 993; CJ (2002–03) 144, 148–49, HC Deb (2002–03) 398, cc 677–88 and cc 831–50. The converse, that it is not in order to debate the appointment of a committee in a motion for nomination of its members, is also true: see ibid (2009–10) 502, c 749.