Regional Accountability — Set up regional select committees — 12 Nov 2008 at 16:17

The majority of the House of Commons voted for the motion:

• This House
• welcomes the Third Report from the Select Committee on Modernisation of the House of Commons on Regional Accountability (HC Paper No. 282);
• approves the proposals for regional select and grand committees for each of the English regions set out in the response from the Government in the White Paper, Regional Accountability (Cm 7376), except that the Chairmen of regional select committees shall not be paid;^[2]
• accordingly endorses the clear expectation that the regional select committees should meet significantly less frequently than departmental select committees; and
• considers that the combination of select committees providing opportunities for inquiries and reports into regional policy and administration together with opportunities for debate involving all honourable Members from the relevant region will provide a major step forward in the scrutiny of regional policy.

The original motion^[1] had been altered by a narrow vote^[2] to include the requirement that the Chairmen of these regional select committees would not be paid an additional salary above their MP's wage.

• [1] Harriet Harman MP, House of Commons, 12 November 2008
• [2] Regional Select Committees - Chairman shall not be paid, House of Commons Division, 12 November 2008

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