The Speaker has written to the party leaders to communicate the proportion of Chairs of Select Committees to be elected to the party leaders.
Reflecting the fact that the Conservative Party does not have a majority (with only 306 seats), and that Labour has 258 seats, the Tories have been given just less than half of the Committees – with the rest being split between Labour and the Liberal Democrats in proportion to the composition of the House. Therefore the Liberal Democrats get only 2 Chairmanships, with Labour the rest. This means that Labour is still a strong force at Committee level, with 10 Chairmanships to the Conservatives 11.
A report from the House of Commons Reform Committee has recommended a smaller amount of Select Committees; ending overlapping or duplicate remits and rationing the scarce resource of Members ‘time and commitment’. The Speaker has taken on board the fact that these recommendations could be acted upon, and has therefore provided figures for a smaller amount of committees.
| No. of relevant committees | Conservative | Labour | Liberal Democrat |
| 20 | 10 | 8 | 2 |
| 21 | 10 | 9 | 2 |
| 22 | 11 | 9 | 2 |
| 23 | 11 | 10 | 2 |
Timeline
The Clerk’s office is also speculating that the elections could take place on Thursday 27th May, or Tuesday 1st June.
