The House | When the public is offered a window into Parliament, it can see how it works for them

Chi Onwurah following a reverse select committee Credit: Sense About Science

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Again and again we hear the public complain that MPs are out of touch, that they don’t represent the public interest, that Parliament is just a game for careerists. It’s not only the public making these claims, of course: we hear colleagues making similar statements to crowd-pleasing effect. The fact that such claims please the crowd should give us all cause to pause.

However, while those claims might be true of individuals, they’re certainly not my experience of Parliament. As Chair of the Defence Select Committee, I can see for myself how much time and attention not only goes into formulating policy in all areas, but also into scrutinising it. Nobody does this work on a whim, as the naysayers might have us believe, or because it lines their pockets: they’re putting the hours in to make our country a better, stronger, safer place to live and work.

Nonetheless, while we Parliamentarians enjoy the benefit of seeing all the work that goes on behind the scenes – the weeks and months of effort before the headlines land – that same privilege is rarely afforded to the public.

To be sure, the government rightly insists on transparency. “There should be no power without accountability, and true accountability requires transparency,” wrote former Prime Minister Keir Starmer back in 2020. And indeed the public rightly has access to a raft of statistics and data on what’s being done, where and how decisions have been reached.

But transparency isn’t the same thing as visibility. It’s one thing to have access to information about Parliament, it’s another to experience it.

That’s why I agreed to participate in this year’s Evidence Week in Parliament, a week-long series of activities organised by the charity Sense about Science to champion the public interest in sound evidence use, and in the process help demystify the workings of our democracy.

Evidence Week opened with a unique ‘Reverse Select Committee’ hearing: 20 members of the public, selected to represent as wide as possible a range of interests and backgrounds, assembled in a Committee Room to each put a question to a panel of Select Committee Chairs and Members, alongside other expert advisers.

Chaired by Sense about Science’s Chief Executive Tracey Brown, it followed the form of an authentic select committee hearing and challenged us panellists to explain our work.

“How does Parliament stay informed of the realities of defence technologies, when they are rapidly developing?”

“Given the rising number of 16-24 year olds not in education or employment, how does Parliament make sure that government is implementing AI technology in a way that addresses this issue, rather than exacerbates it?”

“How can Parliament keep track of the social value created by sports groups?”

These questions – just a handful of those asked and answered – are intelligent, incisive and deserve attention. But in what other forum would members of the public normally get to ask them?

Having the opportunity not only to address their queries, but also to explain how we were able to address them – to describe the workings of a select committee, to outline the Parliamentary process to people who would otherwise never have an opportunity to see inside the Palace of Westminster, let alone observe a committee meeting – was both humbling and empowering.

My fellow panellist Lord Clement-Jones noted that the experience was “both of interest and reassuring to those who came – that’s democratic engagement for you.”

And isn’t that the antidote to “they don’t speak for us”? A window into Parliament. Direct, democratic, public engagement. The participants, I hope, left with a deeper understanding of how policy is formed and scrutinised, and a greater awareness of the accountability that the select committee process enforces. Most of all, they saw that the great Westminster machine is intended to work for them. And you can bet they’ll tell their friends.