Giving evidence to a select committee

What a select committee is

Select committees are the part of Parliament that scrutinises in detail. In the House of Commons there is a committee for each government department, examining its spending, policies and administration. House of Lords committees do not shadow departments. They take on specialist subjects instead, drawing on the expertise of their members. Joint committees mix MPs and peers: three are permanent (Human Rights, National Security Strategy and Statutory Instruments) and others are set up for a single job, such as examining a draft bill.

Only backbenchers sit on committees. Ministers and anyone else on the government payroll are excluded. A committee runs inquiries, takes written and oral evidence, and publishes a report. The government has undertaken to reply to a report within two months of publication where it can.

For a witness, that structure explains the tone. Committee members are not there to catch you out for its own sake. They are gathering evidence for a report that will carry their names, and they want answers they can quote. Give them those, and the session usually goes well.

How you end up in front of one

Committees usually invite witnesses by email, often after reviewing the written evidence an inquiry has received. They want to hear from academics, organisations, ministers and people with direct experience.

Almost every select committee has the power to send for “persons, papers and records”. That means a committee can insist that a witness attends or produces documents. Parliament’s guidance is clear that the formal power is rarely used, and the usual sequence is an invitation, then a reminder that the power exists, and only then a formal order. Rupert and James Murdoch were summoned in 2011, and Mike Ashley was ordered to attend in 2016, but cases like these are unusual. Enforcement rests with the House as a whole, not the committee. The power cannot be used to compel MPs, peers or ministers, which is why committees rely on goodwill and reputational pressure instead.

The practical point: if a committee wants to hear from you, it is usually better to agree early and negotiate the date and the panel than to let the request become a story of its own.

Written evidence

Written evidence goes in through the secure online portal linked from each inquiry’s web page. The Commons guidance sets out the house style:

• Usually no more than 3,000 words. If you need more, put a summary at the start.
• Numbered paragraphs, with headings where they help.
• A single Word, ODT or RTF file, no larger than 25MB. Not a PDF.
• Nothing already published elsewhere, nothing about cases before the courts, and nothing potentially defamatory.

Do not publish your submission yourself until the committee tells you that you may. Once accepted, evidence becomes the property of the committee, it may be published online, and it is protected by parliamentary privilege. A committee does not have to accept a submission as evidence. The Lords also asks you to declare at the start if a substantial part of your evidence was generated by AI.

Before the session

Commons committee staff will usually offer a briefing call a few days before you appear. Take it, and use it. Ask which areas members are most interested in, who else is on your panel and in the session, whether anything has come up in earlier sessions that they expect you to address, and how long your panel is likely to last.

Then do the homework that most witnesses skip:

• Watch the committee. Every public session is archived on parliamentlive.tv. An hour of the same committee questioning someone else will tell you more about its style, its Chair and its hobby horses than any briefing note.
• Know the members. Their constituencies, their backgrounds, what they have said in the chamber about your sector and what they have declared in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests.
• Read the terms of reference and the committee’s recent reports. The questions will follow the committee’s agenda, not yours.
• Tell staff about anything before the courts. The Commons guidance asks witnesses to flag matters that are, or are about to be, before a court of law.

Preparing your answers

A committee session is a marathon, not a sprint. Two hours of questions from ten or so people, some of whom arrive late and ask what you answered forty minutes earlier, tests consistency and stamina as much as knowledge. Preparation should reflect that.

Three core messages

Decide the three things the committee must understand by the end of the session, and the evidence behind each. These are what you return to when an answer needs somewhere to land. They are not a script, and a witness who recites them regardless of the question will be told so, on camera.

The questions you dread

List the ten questions you would least like to be asked, and answer each out loud. The awkward ones are rarely surprising: missed targets, a critical report, executive pay, a past commitment that did not happen. The difficulty is saying the answer calmly in public for the first time. That is why it should not be the first time. Our tough question drill has a select committee set to start with.

A page of facts

The Lords guidance says you may refer to notes but should not rely too heavily on prepared answers. One page of the figures you are likely to need (budgets, headcount, dates, targets, the numbers in your own submission) lets you answer precisely without reading. If you do not know a figure, do not guess: say so, and offer to write to the committee. That is a normal and respected answer.

What you cannot discuss

Commercial confidentiality, live legal cases, individual personnel matters. Decide in advance what falls into these categories and how you will explain it, briefly and without sounding evasive.

Rehearse the whole thing

The most useful preparation is a mock hearing: a panel playing members with different styles, a Chair who keeps time, and at least one hostile questioner, run for the full length of the real session and recorded so the witness can watch it back. That is what our select committee preparation does.

If you are a civil servant

Officials giving evidence follow the Cabinet Office guidance known as the Osmotherly Rules, last updated in October 2014. The key points:

• Civil servants give evidence on behalf of their ministers and under their directions. It is the minister, not the official, who is accountable to Parliament for that evidence.
• The minister decides who is best placed to represent them.
• Officials should confine their evidence to questions of fact and explanation, and avoid being drawn into discussion of the merits of alternative policies.
• Factual errors should be corrected, usually via the Clerk, at the earliest opportunity.

The Commons Library notes one important exception: Senior Responsible Owners of major projects are directly accountable to Parliament for implementing their project. If that is you, expect to be questioned in your own right.

On the day

Sessions are held in the Palace of Westminster or in Portcullis House, the building above Westminster Underground station. For the Palace, the Commons guidance says to use the Cromwell Green entrance opposite Westminster Abbey; for Portcullis House, the Victoria Embankment entrance. Expect airport-style security and arrive at Westminster at least 30 minutes before you are due to appear. Lords committees usually sit in rooms on the Committee Corridor, and ask witnesses to be waiting outside the room ten minutes beforehand.

There is no dress code, but the session is broadcast live and archived online, so dress for a camera. Remote evidence by video link is possible: join at least ten minutes early. Committees cover reasonable expenses, including travel and caring costs, and will make reasonable adjustments, such as a facilitator accompanying you.

The Chair opens the session and invites witnesses to introduce themselves, and may ask for a short opening statement. The Lords asks for these to be under two minutes. Commons sessions usually last up to two hours; Lords sessions generally run between 40 and 90 minutes. There may be several panels in one session.

In the room

What we tell witnesses, from years of preparing them:

• Answer the question you were asked, then add what matters. Members notice immediately when a witness answers a different question, and so does the audience.
• Be consistent. The same point will come back from different members. Give the same answer each time, in the same words if you can.
• Keep your tone even. Tough questioning is the committee doing its job. Irritation reads badly on camera and worse in a transcript.
• Say when you do not know. Offer to write, then do it promptly.
• Remember the camera is on you when you are not speaking. A sigh while a colleague answers can become the clip.
• Short answers are fine. Committees have a lot to get through. A crisp answer earns goodwill; a five-minute one uses it up.

What is protected, and what is not

Formal evidence to a committee is covered by parliamentary privilege: it cannot be used as the basis of civil or criminal proceedings against you or anyone else. The Osmotherly Rules add that government departments must not take disciplinary action against anyone for evidence they give.

Privilege is not the same as confidentiality. Evidence given in public is on the record. Knowingly misleading a committee is a contempt of the House, and so, without reasonable excuse, is refusing to answer a question or to produce papers the committee has formally required.

Afterwards

• The transcript. In the Commons it is published on the committee’s website a few days after the hearing, and corrections go in a separate note. In the Lords an uncorrected transcript goes online and witnesses may make minor corrections. Either way, corrections are for errors, not second thoughts.
• Follow-up letters. Anything you offered to send should go as soon as possible. Late or thin follow-up gets noticed and sometimes quoted in the report.
• The media. Journalists watch committee sessions, and a sharp exchange can be on the evening news. Have lines ready before you leave the building, and brief your press office on what was said.
• The report. Diary it, and the government response, which is usually due within two months of the report.

Pre-appointment hearings

If you are the preferred candidate for certain senior public appointments, such as the chair of a regulator, a Commons committee may hold a pre-appointment hearing before you are confirmed. These have run since 2007–08 and take place in public. The committee’s view is not binding: ministers are asked to weigh it carefully, and the Commons Library found that five of eight negative assessments between 2007 and 2024 were followed by the appointment going ahead anyway. Preparation is the same as for any evidence session, with one addition: expect questions about your own record, independence and suitability.