Committees of Inquiry

The appointment of a committee of inquiry to examine a question of current political controversy is a common occurrence in Britain. Yet the committee of inquiry had received little attention from writers on public administration. Originally published in 1975, in this new study for the Royal Institute of Public Administration, Gerald Rhodes explores the nature and operation of such committees appointed during the ten-year period 1959–1968, and draws some general conclusions about their contribution to the development of public policy-making. Committees of inquiry are called by a variety of names – royal commissions, departmental committees and, sometimes, working parties. They deal with a large range of…