PES Manifesto

The power of scrutiny and informed, democratic accountability

Publié jeudi 3 avril 2008 à 16h15
par Duncan Anderson (vu 748 fois et 0 commentaires)

I was never in favour of such change when the Blair government introduced an option for local authorities to have Cabinets and Scrutiny committees.

I recently sat through a presentation by a Chair of one of the Scrutiny Committees on our local Unitary Authority. She gave a very good report and explained how they had discovered some serious problems in service delivery. The Scrutiny committee was now working with Council Officers, partners and everybody involved using sub-committees to both expose the full problem and present some potential solutions. Knowing the members of the committee, the potential solutions will make up a substantial component of the overall solution - they do look at every detail and are very conscientious.

It strikes me that the EU could look at this model of working, certainly looking at Scrutiny committees who could scrutinise both the work of the EU, but also member states. One serious complaint in the UK is that it appears that nobody else in the EU seems to apply EU directives as rigorously as us. Part of the problem is that our Civil Servants seem to like "gold plating" EU Directives, part is due to opt-outs and part due when other countries don't apply EU Directives. Scrutiny Committees would thoroughly exposed this to public scrutiny and therefore democratic accountability.

A very important part of accountable democracy is a FREE press. Free from the influence of; shareholders, chief executives, politicians, people with vested interests and advertisers. All of these people and groups can use their various influences for the worst and action must be taken to make sure this influence is minimised to as near zero as possible.

Setting up Scrutiny committees would be within the power of the EU and its member states, but I would suggest that it shouldn't be attempted before June 2014. How to create an Editorially Free press with NO inappropriate influences is another matter and I'm not sure how it could be achieved, but I'm sure it will make an interesting topic for debate.

Tags: démocratie, transparence