A bid to set up eight regional select committees, including one in the Yorkshire and Humber area, at a cost of up to nearly £2 million has been backed by MPs.
But moves to pay the chairmen of the new select committees an extra £14,000 a year were rejected by just two votes.
Commons leader Harriet Harman faced cross-party criticism as she made the case for setting up the committees to “plug the accountab
ility gap”.
Ms Harman said agencies in the regions, such as strategic health authorities and the regional development agencies, were “big regional beasts”.
Their regional directors and chief executives were “regional masters of the universe – with huge budgets,” she said. “They are public bodies, they are spending public money in the public interest. It’s right that they should be publicly accountable through this House to the region they serve.”
But Tory former cabinet minister John Redwood demanded: “What part of ‘no’ do you not understand following the referendum result in the North East on elected regional government? The people of England do not want to be Balkanised and regionalised at their expense.”
But MPs voted to go ahead with the regional select committees and grand committees for the East Midlands, East of England, North East, North West, South East, South West, West Midlands and the Yorkshire and Humber region.
Plans for a similar committee to cover London are expected to be put forward in the new year.
The new committees are expected to be up and running early next year and will meet for the lifetime of this Parliament before being reviewed.
The full article contains 271 words and appears in Scarborough Evening News newspaper.
