The Defence Select Committee is one of the Select Committees of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, having been established in 1979. It examines the expenditure, administration, and policy of the Ministry of Defence and its associated public bodies, [1] including the British Armed Forces. The Committee's remit does not generally review Defence Intelligence which instead falls under the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament. [2]
As of January 2024, the members of the committee are as follows: [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
The chair was elected on 12 July 2017, with the members of the committee being announced on 11 September 2017. [12] [13]
The chair was elected on 18 June 2015, with members being announced on 6 July 2015. [14] [15]
Date | Outgoing Member & Party | Constituency | → | New Member & Party | Constituency | Source | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
26 October 2015 | Conor McGinn MP (Labour) | St Helens North | → | Phil Wilson MP (Labour) | Sedgefield | Hansard | ||
31 October 2016 | Richard Benyon MP (Conservative) | Newbury | → | Jack Lopresti MP (Conservative) | Filton and Bradley Stoke | Hansard | ||
5 December 2016 | Jim Shannon MP (DUP) | Strangford | → | Gavin Robinson MP (DUP) | Belfast East | Hansard |
The chair was elected on 10 June 2010, with members being announced on 12 July 2010. [16] [17]
Chair | Party | Constituency | First elected | Method | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Michael Mates | Conservative | East Hampshire | 1987 | Elected by the Select Committee | |
Michael Colvin | Conservative | Romsey and Waterside | 1995 | Elected by the Select Committee | |
Bruce George | Labour | Walsall South | 16 July 1997 | Elected by the Select Committee | |
James Arbuthnot | Conservative | North East Hampshire | 13 July 2005 | Elected by the Select Committee (and the House of Commons in 2010) | |
Rory Stewart | Conservative | Penrith and The Border | 14 May 2014 | Elected by the House of Commons | |
Julian Lewis | Conservative | New Forest East | 17 June 2015 | Elected by the House of Commons | |
Tobias Ellwood | Conservative | Bournemouth East | 29 January 2020 | Elected by the House of Commons | |
Independent | |||||
Conservative | |||||
Robert Courts | Conservative | Witney | 25 October 2023 | Elected by the House of Commons | |
Jeremy Quin | Conservative | Horsham | 17 January 2024 | Elected by the House of Commons |
From June 2010 chairs of select committees have been directly elected by a secret ballot of the whole House of Commons using the alternative vote system. Candidates with the fewest votes are eliminated and their votes redistributed until one remaining candidate has more than half of valid votes. [18] Elections are held at the beginning of a parliament or in the event of a vacancy. [19]
17 January 2024 [20] | |||
---|---|---|---|
Candidate | 1st round | ||
Votes | % | ||
Jeremy Quin | 371 | 78.6 | |
Rehman Chishti | 101 | 21.4 | |
Valid votes | 472 |
25 October 2023 [21] | |||
---|---|---|---|
Candidate | 1st round | ||
Votes | % | ||
Robert Courts | 249 | 57.9 | |
Sarah Atherton | 142 | 33.0 | |
Mark Francois | 39 | 9.1 | |
Valid votes | 430 |
29 January 2020 [22] | |||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Candidate | 1st round | 2nd round | 3rd round | 4th round | |||||||||||
Votes | % | Votes | % | Votes | % | Votes | % | ||||||||
Tobias Ellwood | 243 | 256 | 271 | 296 | |||||||||||
Sir Bernard Jenkin | 173 | 183 | 193 | 226 | |||||||||||
Robert Courts | 62 | 68 | 81 | Eliminated | |||||||||||
Adam Holloway | 45 | 48 | Eliminated | ||||||||||||
James Gray | 39 | Eliminated | |||||||||||||
Not redistributed | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||
Valid votes |
12 July 2017 [23] | |||
---|---|---|---|
Candidate | 1st round | ||
Votes | % | ||
Julian Lewis | 305 | 53.5 | |
Johnny Mercer | 265 | 46.5 | |
Not redistributed | |||
Valid votes | 570 |
17 June 2015 [24] | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Candidate | 1st round | 2nd round | |||||
Votes | % | Votes | % | ||||
Julian Lewis | 260 | 44.1 | 314 | 56.5 | |||
Richard Benyon | 208 | 35.3 | 242 | 43.5 | |||
Bob Stewart | 121 | 20.5 | Eliminated | ||||
Not redistributed | 33 | 5.6 | |||||
Valid votes | 589 | 556 |
14 May 2014 [25] | |||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Candidate | 1st round | 2nd round | 3rd round | 4th round | 5th round | 6th round | 7th round | ||||||||
Votes | % | Votes | % | Votes | % | Votes | % | Votes | % | Votes | % | Votes | % | ||
Rory Stewart | 113 | 23.6 | 115 | 24.1 | 122 | 25.7 | 139 | 29.3 | 149 | 31.9 | 179 | 39.3 | 226 | 51.6 | |
Julian Lewis | 124 | 25.9 | 128 | 26.8 | 131 | 27.6 | 138 | 29.1 | 156 | 33.4 | 165 | 36.2 | 212 | 48.4 | |
Julian Brazier | 68 | 14.2 | 71 | 14.9 | 71 | 14.9 | 77 | 16.2 | 90 | 19.3 | 112 | 24.6 | Eliminated | ||
Keith Simpson | 48 | 10.0 | 48 | 10.1 | 51 | 10.7 | 61 | 12.8 | 72 | 15.4 | Eliminated | ||||
Bob Stewart | 52 | 10.9 | 54 | 11.3 | 56 | 11.8 | 60 | 12.6 | Eliminated | ||||||
Crispin Blunt | 44 | 9.2 | 44 | 9.2 | 44 | 9.3 | Eliminated | ||||||||
Tobias Ellwood | 17 | 3.5 | 17 | 3.6 | Eliminated | ||||||||||
James Gray | 13 | 2.7 | Eliminated | ||||||||||||
Not redistributed | 2 | 0.4 | 4 | 0.8 | 4 | 0.8 | 12 | 2.5 | 23 | 4.8 | 41 | 8.6 | |||
Valid votes | 479 | 477 | 475 | 475 | 467 | 456 | 438 |
9 June 2010 [26] | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Candidate | 1st round | 2nd round | 3rd round | ||||
Votes | % | Votes | % | Votes | % | ||
James Arbuthnot | 210 | 36.6 | 236 | 42.4 | 273 | 52.7 | |
Patrick Mercer | 176 | 30.7 | 189 | 33.9 | 245 | 47.3 | |
Julian Lewis | 115 | 20.1 | 132 | 23.7 | Eliminated | ||
Douglas Carswell | 72 | 12.6 | Eliminated | ||||
Not redistributed | 16 | 2.8 | 55 | 9.6 | |||
Valid votes | 573 | 557 | 518 |
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That Stuart Anderson, Sarah Atherton, Wayne David, Richard Drax, Mr Tanmmanjeet Singh Dhesi, Mr Mark Francois, Martin Docherty-Hughes, Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck, Gavin Robinson and John Spellar be members of the Defence Committee.
That Wayne David and Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi be discharged from the Defence Committee and Mr Kevan Jones and Derek Twigg be added
Defence That Martin Docherty-Hughes be discharged from the Defence Committee and Dave Doogan be added.
That Andrew Bowie be discharged from the Defence Committee and Sarah Atherton be added.
That Dave Doogan be discharged from the Defence Committee and Martin Docherty-Hughes be added.
That Jesse Norman be added to the Defence Committee