The Reform of the House of Commons Committee (known informally as the Wright Committee after its chair, Tony Wright) was a

Select committee Select committee may refer to: *Select committee (parliamentary system) A select committee is a committee made up of a small number of parliamentary members appointed to deal with particular areas or issues originating in the Westminster system o ...

of the

UK Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprem ...

. It was established in 2009 to improve the procedures and relevance of Parliament. It reported on 12 November 2009 and made a number of recommendations, in a document entitled 'Rebuilding the House'. These included * Reduction in the number of committees and in the size of a standard departmental committee, possibly to eleven members * Chairs of departmental and similar select committees should be directly elected by

secret ballot The secret ballot, also known as the Australian ballot, is a voting method in which a voter's identity in an election or a referendum is anonymous. This forestalls attempts to influence the voter by intimidation, blackmailing, and potential vo ...

of the House using the alternative vote * Members of departmental and similar committees should be elected from within party groups by secret ballot *

Backbench In Westminster and other parliamentary systems, a backbencher is a member of parliament (MP) or a legislator who occupies no governmental office and is not a frontbench spokesperson in the Opposition, being instead simply a member of th ...

business should be scheduled by the House rather than by Ministers * The House should decide its sitting pattern for itself * An effective e-

petition A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer called supplication. In the colloquial sense, a petition is a document addressed to some offi ...

s system should be introduced, including the possibility that members of the public might be able to compel an issue to be debated in the House * One backbench motion per month should be routinely scheduled for debate The general theme is that the House should have much more scope to choose and schedule its own activities. In May 2010, the incoming coalition Conservative and Liberal Democrat government agreed to bring forward the Wright Committee's recommendations in full.

References

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External links

Records for this Committee are held at the Parliamentary Archives
Defunct Select Committees of the British House of Commons 2009 establishments in the United Kingdom Reform in the United Kingdom 2010 disestablishments in the United Kingdom