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The ‘departmental’ select committees of the Commons established from 1979 onwards are often represented as a radical and distinctive departure in the history of parliamentary scrutiny, and a clear improvement on the arrangements of previous decades. The article argues that this view needs to be revised, in light of a substantial shift in thinking about select committee scrutiny from the 1960s. Whereas select committees in 1960 were seen as primarily restricted to financial matters, politicians and others later began successfully to promote committee interventions in wider questions of policy and administration. The introduction of departmental committees should therefore be seen as part of a broader long-term process of committee development.
