The Dominic Cummings agenda requires forensic scrutiny from a crucial parliamentary committee

Sir Bernard Jenkin is standing down as chair of the Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Select Committee (PACAC). Two Conservative MPs – David Jones and William Wragg – are standing in the election to succeed him. As a former member of PACAC Jones, an MP since 2005 and a former minister, would bring experience of the committee; Wragg, who was first elected to Parliament in 2015, and has sat on the backbench business committee, could bring a fresh perspective.

The question of who replaces Jenkin matters. The next chair of PACAC will lead the Parliamentary scrutiny of the civil service reform agenda being championed by Dominic Cummings, with the crucial topics of constitutional and electoral policy and devolution also falling to the committee.

PACAC has sometimes struggled with its disparate remit 

PACAC and its predecessor committee (the Public Administration Select Committee, PASC) have, in the past, been catalysts for change. Tony Wright used his chairmanship of PASC between 1999 and 2010 as a vehicle for wide-ranging, in-depth work, producing influential reports and recommendations on issues ranging from special advisers to ministerial accountability, and prerogative powers to public inquiries.

In 2015 PASC became PACAC and took on responsibility for constitutional affairs. This significant expansion of the committee’s already wide-ranging remit made it difficult for the committee to do justice to all aspects of its scrutiny role. Strongly held and differing views amongst PACAC’s members meant Jenkin’s committee did not always appear to be the most harmonious. This was not helped by the fact that much of its constitutional scrutiny was focused firmly through the contentious lens of Brexit. Meanwhile the committee examined the civil service through and beyond the reforms pursued by Francis Maude and more recently worked on the government’s outsourcing agenda.

PACAC could have an important role to play in making government work better

In an article for the IfG, Sir Bernard sets out his views on the next stages of civil service reform. The next PACAC chair will need to look beyond the headlines and past the government’s rhetoric about government transformation, and instead assess what these plans mean in practice – and work to hold those leading this agenda in government, both at ministerial and official level, to account.

The committee can help identify where real progress has been made, like on commercial and procurement capacity, and where further and faster change is needed, for example on digital and data projects.

It should look at whether the government has the right capacity, skills and structures. What strengths and weaknesses has the challenge of delivering Brexit shown in the government’s ability to make change happen – and what is the right way to fix the problems? How well are the Cabinet Office, No.10 and the Treasury keeping up momentum around reform? Are the civil service values of impartiality, objectivity, honesty and integrity still the right ones? What are the particular skills which are needed in the civil servants of the 2020s?

PACAC’s remit will go way beyond civil service reform

PACAC’s remit also includes constitutional and electoral policy and devolution – topics which will stay hot over the next five years.

Other committees lead on specific nations of the UK, but a purposeful PACAC could bring coherence and sharpness to the debate on the union. Brexit means that structures underpinning the devolution settlement will come under intense strain and Parliament needs to find its voice in a new world of majority government. This is a moment for more joint working across the territorial committees and with the Lords Constitution Committee

The wider constitutional reform agenda will also feature. The government is planning fundamental changes, the extent of which are still unclear: on the role of the Supreme Court and judicial review; repealing the Fixed-term Parliaments Act and looking at the use of the royal prerogative; introducing voter identification at polling stations and implementing the – possibly revised – boundary review were all mentioned in the Conservative manifesto. If just a part of this agenda sustains then it would put the committee at the centre of a debate about how our system of democracy works.

The new chair of PACAC will need stamina and a clear view on priorities

Whoever is elected as chair, an effective PACAC, which leads sustained and forensic scrutiny, will strengthen No10, the Cabinet Office and the central departments, helping the government to embed the changes it wants to deliver. The chair must bring their committee with them, and ensure that events do not knock their work off course.

The remit of PACAC can seem arcane, but the business of government matters far beyond Whitehall and Westminster – and the role parliamentary scrutiny is more important than ever.