Speaker’s Statement: Select Committee Chairs
Mr Speaker
We come now to the announcement of the results for the election of Chairs of Select Committees. Nominations for the 27 elected Select Committee Chairs and the Chair of the Backbench Business Committee closed on Friday 7 July, and elections were held by secret ballot today. No ballot was necessary for 17 Committees for which a single nomination had been received, as follows:
Committee | Elected |
Culture, Media and Sport | Damian Collins |
Environmental Audit | Mary Creagh |
Exiting the European Union | Hilary Benn |
Health | Dr Sarah Wollaston |
Home Affairs | Yvette Cooper |
International Development | Stephen Twigg |
International Trade | Angus Brendan MacNeil |
Justice | Robert Neill |
Petitions | Helen Jones |
Procedure | Mr Charles Walker |
Public Accounts | Meg Hillier |
Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs | Mr Bernard Jenkin |
Scottish Affairs | Pete Wishart |
Standards | Sir Kevin Barron |
Welsh Affairs | David T.C. Davies |
Women and Equalities | Mrs Maria Miller |
Work and Pensions | Frank Field |
I say what I am about to say principally for the benefit of people attending to our proceedings outwith the Chamber. What I have just said means that those named individuals have been elected or—I think in every case—re-elected as Chairs of those Select Committees. In the contested elections, a total of 587 ballot papers were submitted, the ballots being counted under the alternative vote system. The following candidates were elected:
Committee | Elected |
Backbench Business | Ian Mearns |
Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy | Rachel Reeves |
Communities and Local Government | Clive Betts |
Defence | Dr Julian Lewis |
Education | Robert Halfon |
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | Neil Parish |
Foreign Affairs | Tom Tugendhat |
Northern Ireland Affairs | Dr Andrew Murrison |
Science and Technology | Norman Lamb |
Transport | Lilian Greenwood |
Treasury | Nicky Morgan |
The full breakdown of voting in each contest, indicating the votes attributable to each candidate after each redistribution of the votes of eliminated candidates is set out in a paper, shortly available on the Parliament website, and from the Vote Office. The Members so elected take up their positions formally when their Committee has been nominated by the House. I congratulate all right hon. and hon. Members concerned. May I, with the concurrence of the House, thank all those candidates who took part in the elections? If I may say so, this is the somewhat more democratic House of Commons in 2017 by comparison with an earlier era.