Nominations of members of select committees are put to the House and can be objected to; none of the nominations of current members of the Committee were objected to, and they therefore had the support of the whole House.
Under House of Commons rules the Chair does not vote unless a division is tied, in which case there is a casting vote. That means the actual voting strength of the parties on the Committee is Conservative 4, Labour 1, SNP 1, with the Labour Chair only voting in the event of a tie. Paragraph 9 of the report comments that, “we leave our party interests at the door of the committee room and conduct our work in the interests of the House. That is what we have striven to do throughout this inquiry”.
2. What triggers an inquiry by the Committee?
The Committee looks at matters referred to it by the House: it has no power to launch its own inquiries. Once that referral has been made, the Committee may look at all connected matters. In 1947 the House resolved, “That when a matter of complaint of breach of privilege is referred to a Committee, such Committee has, and always has had, power to inquire not only into the matter of the particular complaint, but also into facts surrounding and reasonably connected with the matter of the particular complaint, and into the principles of the law and custom of privilege that are concerned”.[1]
In addition, Standing Order No. 133 provides:
Every select committee shall have leave to report to the House its opinion and observations upon any matters referred to it for its consideration, together with the evidence taken before it, and also to make a special report of any matters which it may think fit to bring to the notice of the House.
Erskine May notes that “The interpretation of the order of reference of a select committee is […] a matter for the committee” (25th ed., para 38.11).
3. Has the Committee moved the procedural goalposts?
No. The fundamental elements of that procedure are established by the standing orders and precedent of the House. Wherever the Committee had to make a procedural decision within its limited discretion it did so with the intention of being fair to Mr Johnson while balancing the need to rigorously examine the issues that arise on behalf of the House.
Contempt of the House is governed by the law of privilege. The categories of contempt are unfettered, that is, they are not fixed for all time and it is for the House to decide whether conduct that is alleged is a contempt or not. The House has not excluded the possibility that there may be contempt based upon reckless conduct and the Committee had to keep that in mind. In this case, the Committee has concluded that Mr Johnson’s conduct was not merely reckless but was deliberate and so the question is academic, but it will remain a matter for the House in any subsequent inquiry.
4. Is it appropriate for the Committee to follow the procedures of the courts?
The Committee has to follow parliamentary procedure, but where it has power to refine that procedure it has done so in this inquiry in a way favourable to Mr Johnson, requiring all
- ↑ Commons Journal, vol 203, page 23 (30 October 1947)
