Chairs have few formal powers and only a casting vote if a formal decision is required. But they do have a great deal of influence over how a committee works. Individual styles vary and different committees may require different approaches.
Among the key elements of the role are:
- providing support and direction to the committee’s staff between formal meetings
- ensuring that committee members can contribute to the choice of inquiry topics, oral evidence sessions and reports, and
- providing the committee’s public face
Chairs may also spend a good deal of time working behind the scenes – for example, communicating with ministers in the department the committee scrutinises, or meeting organisations that want to attract the committee’s attention or promote a subject for inquiry.
Most committees delegate specified routine decisions to the chair – for example, the timing of meetings and organisation of evidence sessions. Chairs also usually propose the draft report discussed by a committee at the end of an inquiry.
Most chairs, unlike other committee members, receive an addition to their salary to reflect the additional time and work the role requires. This is set by IPSA and published on their website.
Once a select committee is appointed, the chair will write to its members with the date, time and place of the first meeting. Where there is no pre-elected chair, the longest serving MP, regardless of any interruption of service, will write.