Lesson video

Hello, my name's Mrs. Tamasi and I'm gonna be working through with you on your citizenship lesson today.

So if you've got everything that you need, you're ready to go, then we'll get started.

Today's lesson title is, How can I Take Part in the Democratic Process, the Role of Select Committees, and this forms part of the unit called Should the UK Be Called A Democracy.

Hopefully by the end of the lesson today, you are gonna be able to explain what a select committee is and how you can get involved.

So there are two key words to look out for in the lesson today.

Now the first one is select committee.

Now that is a group of members of a legislative body chosen to investigate and report on specific issues or topics.

The second key word is government.

The government is the group of people with the the authority to govern a country.

In the UK, the government is chosen and led by the Prime Minister, sometimes known as the PM.

Now you'll see these words in bold throughout, so if you ever need to, refer back to them here.

We're gonna make a start with the first of the two learning cycles today, which is what are select committees? So you start thinking about what you think a select committee is.

Have you ever heard of it before? Now what they are, they're groups of MPs or lords from different political parties and they look at specific matters.

They're set up to examine government departments.

So it comes back to this idea when we think about the role of Parliament and how they scrutinise each other.

This is one of the many ways that we can help to hold leaders accountable by using select committees.

So examples of some committees include things like business and trade, public services, work, and pensions.

There are so many and there is a huge variety of different committees and as we were just saying, they're there to scrutinise and investigate the government's actions and policies.

But select committees exist in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

They just run.

They don't run differently, but they have different topics.

But the committees are just named and they might look at different areas.

House of Commons, they're specifically kind of there to shadow each of the government departments.

So you'll find that each committee links to a government department, whereas in the House of Lords, they've got some permanent select committees that are based on broader topic areas and they've got special pop-up committees that investigate specific current issues.

So if something popped up, then they could look at that as well.

To give you some examples and to see what they're like, you've got the House of Commons, so you've got the one we spoke about earlier, the Business and Trade Committee, Defence Committee, Housing Committee, and Local Government Committee.

So these are very much linked to the departments in government, whereas the House of Lords, it's combining different areas.

So there you've got Food, Diet and Obesity Committee, Home-Based Working and Public Services Committees.

Check for understanding.

So choose the correct word to complete each sentence.

The House of Commons or Lords has select committees that shadow each of the government departments and the House of Commons or Lords has some permanent select committees made up of broader subject areas.

Work out the correct ones.

Did you get it? So the House of Commons is the shadow in the government department and the House of Lords has some permanent on broader subject areas.

We'll have a look in more detail at this now.

So in the House of Commons, each select committee is made up of a chair and committee members.

Now the chair is the one there that will lead and organise.

And in the majority of committees, the chair is elected by the fellow MPs to lead the committee.

Some people put their names forward, they will then decide who is going to lead it.

There's usually about 11 members and they're made up of backbench MPs.

Do you know what the backbenches are? So the backbenches are those without a specific role.

So they're not the government ministers or in charge of department.

These are the other MPs.

And each select committee will have different political parties within it.

It should roughly reflect the balance of political party members in UK Parliament.

So if you've got say 40% from party A and 20% from party B, you are roughly looking for maybe four of party A in your committee and then maybe two or three of the other ones.

Obviously it doesn't always work out that way, but that's the rough balance is to reflect the same as it is in the House of Commons.

Following the 2024 general election, this meant there were more Labour MPs in select committees as Labour won more seats in the House of Commons.

So that's showing you how they're made up to reflect the current balance.

Committee members decide what the inquiry's gonna be about.

So when we say inquiry, they are looking at what it is that they want to investigate or find out more about.

To give you an example, in November 2024, the Culture Media and Sports Committee undertook an inquiry to examine the health of sport in local communities and schools to see whether more could be done to grow sporting opportunities for all.

And there are so many different in-depth areas.

If there is an area that you are really interested in, why not go and have a look and find out what they are currently investigating and what they are inquiring about.

Now we'll have a little look and see what happens.

So here we've got an example of an inquiry, but then what do they do? How do they actually work, have you got any ideas? So how do they work? What happens is they'll have their inquiry and then they'll go and start gathering evidence.

Now they're gonna speak to experts and citizens.

They might ask people to appear before them and answer questions, but they're gonna go and explore.

For example, in that sports scenario, they're gonna go find out lots of people who've been involved and ask them questions and find out some more information.

Then they research the issue.

So they're now gonna look at like documents, reports, statistics, find out again more about it.

After that, they will meet regularly to discuss what they've learned and decide on their conclusions.

A report is then written and make suggestions for the government to improve their actions.

Once that's happened, the reports are presented to Parliament and the public.

The government is expected to respond to the recommendations within two months.

So the aim is by the end of it, there is some form of action.

Now the government don't have to action all of this, however, they do have to provide a response and look at the report and find out what has been recommended.

So check for understanding, identify the missing steps on how a select committee works.

You've got gathering evidence, you've got research in the issue, there's a missing one there.

Then there's writing a report and then there's something missing at the end.

What are they? Did you get it? So it's meeting regularly and then presenting the report to the Parliament and public.

Great work if you've got that.

And then we will move on.

We have select committees, but what impact do they actually have? Can you think why they might be beneficial or what impact could they create? What they're doing is they're ensuring the government is held accountable.

They're questioning ministers, gathering evidence and making recommendations for improvement.

If you ever think if you've had to do a project and before you started, maybe you might not know a lot about that project, but after you've done your in-depth and you've found out all this information about it, it's gonna help you to ask those important questions that are gonna help to promote positive influences and change.

This is a bit like a select committee.

It kind of works in that way.

So it's helping those MPs as well to ask those informed questions and make sure they're really holding the government accountable to what they're doing.

They allow the public to know what the government is doing, how decisions are made.

All the work that they do is made public and it can be seen as well and you can find it all on the website.

So to give you an example of some of the impacts that have happened, you've got the Environment Food and Rural Affairs Committee.

Now they complete an inquiry into plastic waste in 2022.

Some of the recommendations included reducing single use plastics, which contributed to the government's introduction of a ban on single use plastics in 2023.

So we were saying that the government don't have to implement what's found out in a select committee.

However, there are times where they do or there's also been times where maybe they've not put something in place straight away, but actually they've come back to it later and gone, oh yeah, that was actually really useful.

We're gonna implement that now.

So it's really good because you've got a lot of evidence and you've got a lot of research there that can support changes to government policies and that is a key point there.

We're saying they can support the changes.

The select committees do not have the power themselves to make changes to the law directly.

They set the recommendations based upon their findings and what those recommendations can do is inform and influence government decision making.

It is up to the government to choose to implement it.

It's not forced and it doesn't necessarily mean that changes will be implemented.

So true or false, select committees impact policies and laws directly.

That's false, can you remember why? They provide the recommendation from the evidence collected, but cannot directly impact policies and laws.

The government chooses whether to implement those recommendations.

That moves us onto the first task.

So pick one of the following select committees.

You've got culture, media and sport, education, environment, food and rural affairs.

Identify a suitable inquiry question for your chosen select committee and describe the process they might follow to complete their report.

Include a recommendation that your chosen select committee may make in your answer.

So take some time, pick one maybe that you're more interested in or know more about, and then see if you can come up with the question, the process and a recommendation and pause it when you are ready to go through the feedback.

How did you find that? Now, if you picked the culture, media and sport one, you could have had a question like, how can more young people get involved in sports? The process would look like this.

So the select committee would gather evidence from a variety of sports groups, young people, parents, carers, educators, as well as gathering relevant facts and statistics through research.

They then use this to information to create a report and suggest recommendations to the government.

These recommendations might include an awareness campaign via posters and adverts.

If you chose education committee, maybe you could have picked something like what steps can be taken to improve equal opportunities for all pupils? Now this committee would gather evidence from maybe schools, teachers, pupils, education experts.

They could invite charities to their regular meetings to help gather additional information.

And after their inquiry, they'd produce a report with recommendations aimed at reducing educational inequality.

And these recommendations might include increasing funding for schools funding in disadvantaged areas.

Now the final one, if you picked the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, could have been like, how can we reduce pollution in UK rivers? You could gather evidence from environmental organisations, businesses, water safety activists, and the public, maybe review statistics and data on pollution in the UK and afterwards the committee would reduce a report with recommendations to the government aimed at tackling pollution.

These could include incentives for businesses to use more sustainable materials and could clean up practises.

Now these are obviously ideas.

You might have had picked completely different questions, you might have completely different recommendations and that is fine.

Just remembering that process of making sure you are gathering that evidence.

Maybe you're reviewing the statistics and at the end, you are producing that report with recommendations and that shows us how a select committee works.

Now we're gonna look at how can I take part in select committees.

So hopefully through that first one, you've started to see that there are some ways citizens can take part in select committee.

Can you think of any ideas already? Did you manage to get things like submitting the written evidence, providing report surveys or statements for evidence and attending public consultations? We'll go through each of these in a bit more detail in this cycle.

Andeep says we're not able to vote yet, so why should we know about select committees? Select committees are actually one of the ways that young people can get involved in democracy.

They're not age restricted, so it's not like voting where you have to be maybe 16 in some areas, 18 in others, 18 for other elections.

Actually, select committees, like we saw in that first learning cycle, they do ask for evidence specifically from young people.

If they are looking at situations that involve young people, they wanna hear their views.

Some examples are things like there's been select committees on children and young people's mental health, children and young people in custody, education challenges facing children and young people from Gypsy, Roma and traveller backgrounds.

And each of those inquiries, they will look for those children, young people from those situations or backgrounds and ask for their advice so that it can ensure that the evidence being produced is gonna provide the right recommendations in the report.

True or false, you have to be an MP of a certain age to take part in select committees.

That's false, why? The public can contribute to select committees by submitting evidence or attending public consultations.

There are no aid restrictions.

Now, when you give the evidence as well, it takes part in many different forms. It could be your experience of an issue, it could be your thoughts and views.

It's not asking that you have to be from a specific background and you have to be able to provide evidence.

That's really detailed.

They are asking for a wide range to see what's going on.

This means you could write a little or you could write a lot.

It just has to be relevant to the inquiry question that they are asking about, and you can find exactly what they're looking about on the select committees page, on the government website.

You'll find all the select committees on there.

So if you are like, actually, I don't even know what's going on, have a look and see if there might be something that interests you.

Laura says you can even contribute evidence through social media and that's another point as well.

Sometimes there might be posts that are put out or asking for certain information and you can respond that way as well.

So select committees might offer the public to get involved by taking part in discussions, public consultations or visits to a specific area or industry.

So maybe if there's specific business that they're looking at, they might go and have a look round and see for themselves what is actually going on.

Laura says, when evidence is being taken, they even have an area for the public and media to observe.

That's another point as well.

So say maybe you don't wanna give evidence, but you are interested in the topic and what's going on.

You could go and watch it or you could read about it on what's published afterwards as well.

So there's still lots of different ways that you can be involved and keep up to date with what's going on.

Check for understanding, which of these statements about select committees are correct? The public can choose to share their views on an inquiry question by providing evidence, the public can take part in group discussions or the public and media can watch evidence meetings.

A bit of a trick here, it is all three, so hopefully you managed to get that.

As we said, there's so many different ways that you can be involved.

That moves us on to the final task for today.

Lucas says, I'm too young to be involved in the democratic process.

No one will listen to what I have to say.

Explain to Lucas why his statement is incorrect in relation to select committees.

If you take some time, once you've got your response, unpause and we can go through the feedback.

So how did you get on? Now your response could have looked like this.

You need to be 18 to vote in a general election, but there are other ways to engage democratically before then.

Select committee which investigate specific issues and recommend government improvements, welcome participation from young people.

You can get involved by submitting written evidence, providing reports, attending consultations, joining discussions or watching sessions in person.

Some select committees specifically seek youth perspectives on topics like children's mental health and young people in custody.

Evidence can even be contributed through social media, making select committees an accessible democratic channel for all ages, regardless of voting eligibility.

I suppose that's something really important to remember.

It is, there's no age restrictions and you can get involved in many ways, passively if you just wanna have a look and see what's going on, or you can actually go and you can provide evidence yourself.

And it's a great way to see what is going on democratically.

So that brings us to the summary of today's lesson.

So select committees are small groups of MPs or lords that scrutinise different government departments by collecting evidence, creating reports, and sharing their findings and recommendations.

Citizens can get involved with select committees by providing written evidence or data and attending public consultations.

Select committees exist in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords with Common Committees shadowing government departments and Lords Committees focusing on broad subject areas or specific current issues.

While select committees cannot directly change laws, their recommendations can significantly influence government decisions and policy changes.

Hopefully that's given you a better understanding of what select committees are and maybe never know, you might provide your own evidence to a select committee in the future.

Have a great day and thanks for working with me today.