The agenda for the first meeting of a select committee will include declarations of members’ interests. You’re required to declare both
- the interests that you’re obliged to record in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests
- any further interests – whether or not they’re financial – which are relevant to the work of the committee, even if they’re not interests you’d be required to record in the Register
These further interests might include
- trusteeships of bodies relevant to the committee’s remit
- trade union or trade association membership
- close family connections (for example on the Health Committee a close relative who is a medical professional or on the Defence Committee one who is serving in the armed forces)
- financial interests which, though not declarable under the House’s rules for registration are particularly relevant to the committee’s remit
You can contact the Registrar or clerk of the committee if you’re not sure whether you should declare something. On the whole, the advice will be to err on the side of disclosure where there is doubt.
Before the first meeting, the clerk will arrange for your entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests to be circulated, and will write to you, seeking a list of any further interests that you wish to declare. That list will then be circulated to all members of the committee with the papers for the first meeting.
At the first meeting, you’ll be asked whether you have anything to add or change in the circulated information. Your interests will be recorded in the formal minutes, which are published on the committee’s website. The same process will be followed for each new member of the committee who joins at a later date.
As in proceedings in the Chamber, you may have such a close connection to a particular subject that you feel it’s necessary to declare it again in respect of a specific inquiry, so that it’s recorded again. If so, you should do so at each public session before asking questions of witnesses. In very rare cases, you may have so direct a financial interest in a specific inquiry that you should stand aside from taking part in meetings on that inquiry.