Next week's committees
After a bit of a lull around the Queen's Speech, the Select Committees are swinging back into action.
On Monday, the Science and Technology Committee continues its inquiry on homeopathy, with a panel of witnesses from the government and regulatory agencies, headed by the Health Minister Mike O'Brien. They'll also hear from Professor Kent Woods, of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency which can licence homeopathic products. Plenty of fun has already been had, and more is expected.
And after the clashes about public money allegedly going to extremist organisations at PMQs, on Wednesday, the first evidence hearing of the Communities and Local Government Committee's new inquiry into Preventing Violent Extremism programme could prove interesting.
This is the programme which seeks to divert young people from extremism and resort to violence. It's highly controversial both in government, where there are different views about its effectiveness, and in the Muslim community, where some voices say it's insulting and intrusive to mix attempts at building communities with what is essentially a security programme.
On Tuesday the Business and Culture, Media and Sport committees will hold their annual joint hearing on the work of Ofcom, the communications regulator.
The Home Affairs Committee will hear from the Justice Minister Maria Eagle and assorted police and government agencies in its continuing inquiry into cocaine. (see below). The Defence Committee will be quizzing General Sir Kevin O'Donaghue on the issue of defence equipment. The Joint Committee on Human Rights will be following up its concerns on control orders and detention of terrorist suspects with the Home Office Minister David Hanson.
On Wednesday, the Work and Pensions Committee will be hearing from Janet Paraskeva, chair of the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission. It is now bringing in more money than it spends in its efforts to extract maintenance from deadbeat dads and indeed mums. The Scottish Affairs Committee will be hearing from the Scottish TUC and several banks in its continuing inquiry into Banking in Scotland (after the apocalypse of 2007).
The Energy and Climate Change Committee will hear from Alistair Buchanan, chief executive of Ofgem, the gas and electricity markets regulator, about Project Discovery - Ofgem's investigation into whether future security of energy supply can be delivered by the existing market arrangements over the coming decade.
The Foreign Affairs Committee will be looking at US-UK relations with the assistance of two journalists, Stryker McGuire of Newsweek and the BBC's former North American Editor, Justin Webb.
Lord Adonis, the Transport Secretary will be appearing before the Transport Committee. Reliable sources suggest this session should be quite interesting. Aside from the fact that Lord Adonis rarely wastes the chance for a soundbite, the questions should be fairly demanding, especially after this week's news about National Express East Anglia losing its franchise three years early.
The Permanent Secretary of Defra, Dame Helen Ghosh, will be giving evidence to the Efra committee on the continuing difficulties at the Rural Payments Agency, where delays in support payments have caused huge problems for farmers. The committee is concerned that no solution has been found, and it's worried that a shift to a new system of area-based payments, due in a couple of years, could deepen farmers' woes.
And the Public Accounts Committee will pile into the woes of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which have already been probed by the Joint Human Rights Committee. Chairman Trevor Phillips is again the main witness. The PAC is expected to focus on claims that staff made redundant from the Commission's predecessor bodies were immediately rehired at considerable expense to the taxpayer.
The pace does not slacken on Thursday...the Public Administration Committee hears from a collection of think tankers and policy experts about how to govern in a recession. And the Culture, Media and Sport Committee continues its inquiry into the crisis engulfing the local media.
I'm Mark D'Arcy and I'll be writing about what goes on in the chambers and committee rooms at Westminster.
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