Select committtees are groups of backbenchers who have a responsibility for examining the work of a department, such as the Home Office, or for looking at a specific area, such as the ombudsman or the public accounts. The committee membership is usually 11 backbench MPs.
As with standing committees no member of the government may be a member, but most of the MPs on the committees will be from the majority party, if there is one. The Majority party will also provide most of the chairs of the committees, and chairs dominate the committees' agenda. Membership, and the allocation of chairs, reflects the balance of the House of Commons. Chairs are paid an additional allowance, but ordinary members do not get one, so there is no financial incentive for their work.
The main purpose then on select committees is to provide a means of scrutinising the government and other public institutions such as the television companies and the railways, and of upholding the public interest.
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