Page 104 - When Things Go Wrong

instances where the information provided is unsatisfactory, select
committees should move to hold full hearings as soon as possible. 298

6.29 Noting an increasing appetite amongst Parliamentary select committees for
holding Ministers to account, 299 the Working Party endorses and restates the
Institute for Government’s recommendation. The recommendation provides a
feasible way of ensuring that inquiry recommendations do not simply
disappear for lack of political will. Further, it ensures that where
recommendations are rejected, Government must explain why, and do so in
public.

6.30 We note the response to the Institute for Government’s recommendation by the
Liaison Committee:

The case was well argued, and it is clear that there does need to be some
form of follow-through for such inquiries when they have reported, and
the absence of any such mechanism is a significant shortcoming which
can reduce the impact of these expensive undertakings and let government
and others off the hook. However, we also recognise that such monitoring
is a significant call on resources and could only be done through an
increase in staff. It might also be best done in a centralised way, even
within Parliament, rather than left to individual committees for which
different inquiries and their outcomes will engage very different levels of
political engagement. 300

The Working Party acknowledges the argument as to resources; and would
suggest that introduction of an independent monitoring body would provide
the “centralised” method suggested by the Liaison Committee without
increasing the demands on Parliamentary committees.

298 Norris and Shepheard, supra note 21, p. 4. The authors recommend, “where full hearings are
necessary, the approach of the Health Select Committee to the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust
Public Inquiry provides an excellent model”.
299 House of Commons Liaison Committee, ‘The effectiveness and influence of the select committee
system: Fourth Report of Session 2017-19’ (HC 1860, 2019), para 289.
300 Ibid, para 13. The proposal has since been expanded to cover inquiry recommendations, see
‘INQUEST Parliamentary Briefing, Grenfell Debate’, October 2019.

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