Scrutiny

The paper I presented at Wroxton was called, ""Battles on Many Fronts: Education Scrutiny and Debate in the Twenty-First Century House of Commons". It was presented during a panel on "Westminster in Context" which also discussed papers by Meg Russell & Ruxandra Serban; Mark Shephard;  and Louise Thompson & Cristina Leston-Bandeira.

The paper describes the various opportunities open for parliamentary scrutiny of Education - and includes a table listing and giving examples of these. It looked in more detail at the scrutiny in the Education Select Committee and at the Public Bill Committee which undertook the committee stage of the Education and Adoption Bill. A further table was produced showing who had participated in Education Questions (which are held at 2.30pm on the Monday of every 5th Parliamentary week.

I'm happy to supply a copy of the paper, just email me.

Centre for Legislative Studies

This research centre based at the University of Hull was founded in 1992. The Centre Director (and co-founder) is Philip Norton, otherwise known as Lord Norton of Louth. He is a world renowned authority on the British Parliament and legislatures generally. The list of his publications is long. My particular favourites are Parliament in British Politics (which is a replacement for his earlier - Does Parliament Matter?) and Dissension in the House of Commons, 1974-79 (He also wrote Dissension in the House of Commons which covered the period 1945-74, but the Labour Government of 1974-79 has always been a particular research interest of mine). He is the most active blogger on Lords of the Blog. and did a short interview for Washminster on Parliamentary Reform (recorded in Westminster Hall). The much respected Online MA in Legislative Studies is co-ordinated by Cristina Leston Bandeira.

The Centre runs the Workshop of Parliamentary Scholars and Parliamentarians which is held every two years at Wroxton. It is also responsible for the Journal of Legislative Studies

A brochure for the Center can be downloaded here.