Committee Activity: Fifth Parliament

 

Over the duration of the Fifth Parliament there were
6483
committee meetings.


The Fifth Parliament committee system comprised of 67 committees:

37
PORTFOLIO COMMITTEES
6
JOINT COMMITTEES
12
SELECT COMMITTEES
12
AD HOC COMMITTEES


Over the Fifth Parliament, Portfolio Committees held 5293 meetings. This is followed by the Select Committees which collectively held 911 meetings, 154 Ad Hoc Committee meetings and 125 meetings of the Joint Committees (View addendum)


Looking at these numbers in more detail, our statistics show some Portfolio Committees were extremely busy over the Fifth Parliament. These stand-out Committees include:


FINANCE: 309 meetings

TRADE AND INDUSTRY: 268 meetings

POLICE: 237 meetings

APPROPRIATIONS: 236 meetings

TRANSPORT: 177 meetings
23% of all Portfolio Committee meetings over the Fifth Parliament

Calculations show that on average, the other Portfolio Committees held 109 meetings over the Fifth Parliament


Calculations also show that 2018 was the busiest year for all Committees – 1474 Committee meetings were held in this year alone. This equates to 23% of all meetings over the Fifth Parliament. This also ties in with a finding PMG made, in its study of legislative performance, that Parliament’s work rate increases significantly in the year immediately preceding a national election


NUMBER OF COMMITTEE MEETINGS: FIFTH PARLIAMENT

YEAR NUMBER OF MEETINGS
2014 814
2015 1272
2016 1214
2017 1421
2018 1474
2019 288
TOTAL 6483


We also took a look at the number of parliamentary work days during the Fifth Parliament – calculations show there were 613 parliamentary work days between June 2014 and March 2019 – this number excludes weekends, public holidays, constituency days (Mondays) and recess breaks.


NUMBER OF PARLIAMENTARY WORK DAYS

YEAR NUMBER OF WORK DAYS
2014 79
2015 140
2016 115
2017 131
2018 120
2019 28
TOTAL 613


COMMITTEE ATTENDANCE

Since the beginning of the Fifth Parliament, PMG has recorded the attendance (View Addendum) of MPs in Committee meetings. Our records show that the attendance of Committee meetings in the Fifth Parliament has improved over the five years. Those Portfolio Committees that stand out for top attendance over the five years are:

89%
COOPERATIVE GOVERNANCE AND TRADITIONAL AFFAIRS
82%
ARTS AND CULTURE
81%
SPORT AND RECREATION
79%
RURAL DEVELOPMENT AND LAND REFORM
79%
TRANSPORT
79%
POLICE

DISCLAIMER: This is not official data from Parliament. This information has been obtained via the Parliamentary Monitoring Group. PMG makes every effort to compile reliable and comprehensive information, but does not claim that the data is 100% accurate and complete.

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