The Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission (SCEC), or simply the Speaker's Committee, is a body created under the
Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000
The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (c. 41) is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom that sets out how political parties, elections and referendums are to be regulated in the United Kingdom. It formed an important pa ...
to scrutinise the
Electoral Commission
An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...
.
[Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act (c. 41)](_blank)
Schedule 1 ss 14–19 Through the committee's members, the commission is able to field questions in the House of Commons in a manner similar to the way ministers do.
Composition
The committee comprises nine MPs: the
speaker of the House of Commons Speaker of the House of Commons is a political leadership position found in countries that have a House of Commons, where the membership of the body elects a speaker to lead its proceedings.
Systems that have such a position include:
* Speaker of ...
(who also serves as its chair), the
Lord President of the Council,
[As ministerial responsibility for the Electoral Commission was transferred to the Deputy Prime Minister, this position was transferred by statutory instrument as was done when responsibility shifted from the Home Secretary to the Lord Chancellor. Se]
SI 2010/1837, s 4
an
the chair of the select committee responsible for electoral issues,
[Section 2(2)(a) of the Political Parties, Elections, and Referendums Act specifically calls for this to be the chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, but 2(6)(b) states that if responsibility for electoral issues transfers to another committee, that committees chair should serve instead. In the 2005, ]Alan Beith
Alan James Beith, Baron Beith, (born 20 April 1943) is a British Liberal Democrat politician who represented Berwick-upon-Tweed as its Member of Parliament (MP) from 1973 to 2015.
From 1992 to 2003 he was Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democr ...
served on the Committee as chair of the Justice Select Committee
The Justice Select Committee of the United Kingdom is a select committee of the House of Commons which scrutinizes the policy, administration, and spending of the Ministry of Justice. In addition, the committee examines the work of the Law Offi ...
. As ministerial responsibility for the Electoral Commission has transferred to the Deputy Prime Minister, the chair of the Political and Constitutional Reform Select Committee, which was set up to scrutinse the Deputy Prime Minister's functions, now serves. the minister responsible for local government, and five others nominated by the speaker who are not
Ministers of the Crown
Minister of the Crown is a formal constitutional term used in Commonwealth realms to describe a minister of the reigning sovereign or viceroy. The term indicates that the minister serves at His Majesty's pleasure, and advises the sovereign or ...
. As of 28 May 2020, the members of the committee are as follows:
See also
*
Parliamentary Committees of the United Kingdom
The parliamentary committees of the United Kingdom are committees of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Each consists of a small number of Members of Parliament from the House of Commons, or peers from the House of Lords, or a mix of both, ap ...
References
External links
The records of the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission are held by the Parliamentary Archives
{{UKParliamentCommittees
Committees of the British House of Commons