09 May 2008
Parliamentary debates on Whitehall ministries' performance need to be overhauled to take account of the new cross-departmental Public Service Agreements, senior backbench MPs have said.
The Commons' modernisation committee also wants more parliamentary time to be devoted to scrutiny of government departments' performance against their key objectives, and for discussion of their annual reports.
Its members argue that the introduction of cross-cutting PSAs, set out in last year's Comprehensive Spending Review and covering the period 2008 to 2011, mean that debates should focus on areas of particular significance highlighted in the agreements, rather than 'artificially' devoting equal time to all departments and all targets.
The committee's report, Debating departmental objectives and annual reports, published on May 7, adds: 'Any new procedure for debating departmental objectives on the floor of the House will need to… allow for the objectives of more than one department to be combined into one debate.'
PFmay2008
