Assembly Committees

Committees are one of the ways that the Assembly does business. A roughly "party-balanced" group of AMs will sit on a Committee set up to carry out specific functions.

The Assembly’s rule book (Standing Orders) states that the Assembly must establish committees with the power to:

1. examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the government and associated public bodies;

2. examine legislation;

3. undertake other specific functions (more later); and

4. consider any matter affecting Wales

Some of the committees have been established to undertake specific functions. They are:

· Business Committee – responsible for the organisation of Assembly Business

· Standards of Conduct Committee

· Public Accounts Committee

· Finance Committee

· Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee

· Petitions Committee

The rest undertake scrutiny inquiries into the impact of government policies and activities and scrutinise proposed legislation. They are:

· Children and Young People Committee

· Communities, Equality and Local Government Committee

· Enterprise and Business Committee

· Environment and Sustainability Committee

· Health and Social Care Committee

Third sector organisations can be a very useful resource for committees as they are required to undertake detailed scrutiny of a variety of topics and can benefit from external expert evidence. When committees undertake an inquiry they will publish a call for evidence which third sector organisations may wish to respond to. They will also take oral evidence from external stakeholders and this can be a very good way of raising your issues at Assembly level. It is worth monitoring the committee web pages for announcements of future inquiries but it is also worth contacting the committee clerks of the committees relevant to your work and trying to establish a positive relationship with them. You may wish to give the Clerks a brief outline of your work and your contact details so that when inquiries are announced they will send you the information and may ask you to give oral evidence – the oral evidence sessions often take place while the inquiry evidence gathering is still on going so it is useful for the Clerk to be aware of your organisation from the outset as it may assist your chances of getting an oral evidence slot.

The Committee Chairs can also be influential in terms of deciding what inquiries the committee will hold and what issues they should address. It is worth knowing who Chairs the committee relevant to your area of interest (it may come under the remit of more than one committee) and which AMs are members of the committee.

For a full list of the committees and their membership click here.