"You must get on with it"

The Public Administration Select Committee did not get off to the strongest of starts this summer. It always ran the risk of being overshadowed by its predecessor Committee, chaired by the great Dr Tony Wright. Then there appeared to be problems getting enough MPs to stand for election to it. And once it was appointed, it took a while to get its act together. It managed one omnibus hearing before the summer recess, during which it appeared to have successfully bounced Francis Maude into giving it a role in approving new or reorganised arm's-length bodies. But he baulked at extending that role to approval of abolition of existing bodies - and the Government has indeed gone ahead with today's announcement about a quango cull, without waiting for the fruits of the Committee's current inquiry into the subject.

So far the Committee has been concentrating not on quangos but on its other inquiry into 'UK Grand Strategy'. This inquiry is focusing on the National Security Council, and clearly reflects the Chair, Bernard Jenkin's, interest in defence issues, rather than public administration as usually understood. Hearings under this heading have included one on 9 September with three distinguished academics, who frankly - and enjoyably - took over control of proceedings to give the Committee the benefit of their collective wisdom. Professor Peter Hennessy even went so far as to give them instructions on how to do their job. Following a reference to the Comprehensive Spending Review and the Strategic Defence Review as an opportunity to achieve change, he adjured them: "It should be, but you're going to have to get on with it because it's nearly all done and dusted... You might, if you think it matters, Chairman, do a very quick interim report on this one because the clock is ticking. I'm serious. You must get on with it..." Bernard Jenkin offered that the Committee were aiming for the second week of October to publish the report (there is no sign of it yet, however). Peter Hennessy snapped back "too late". Shortly afterwards, he was giving more advice. "If you did an annual audit of this strategic question, a short one, it would concentrate minds... That's just a respectful suggestion".

But today, in "a short inquiry" (i.e. one morning's hearings) into Equitable Life, the Committee showed signs of finding its feet. Bernard Jenkin met and greeted witnesses with elaborate courtesy but also asked some very pointed questions ("How do you measure injustice?"). For their part, other members showed signs of throwing off the constraints he was trying to impose on them. After warming up with sessions with the Ombudsman and Sir John Chadwick, they were pretty much in full cry by the time the Financial Secretary, Mark Hoban, arrived from the Treasury. And they seemed to surprise him into admitting that he did not know for sure whether the amount to be allocated to compensation for Equitable Life members had yet been agreed, although it is to be announced as part of the CSR next week - which means it can't be a decision he is being allowed to make.

Some hopeful signs there then in terms of the Committee's developing effectiveness. But their report on Equitable Life will almost certainly appear too late to influence the decision which is out of even Mark Hoban's hands. They should stop pulling their punches. And in Peter Hennessy's words, they must get on with it.