Select Committees

Select Committees play a crucial role in the Budget process, allowing different parts of the Budget to be individually scrutinised. They also scrutinise and recommend changes to legislation before it is passed by Parliament and can initiate their own inquiries.

Most business related to Corrections is considered by the Justice Committee, which also looks at business related to constitutional and electoral matters, human rights, justice, courts, crime and criminal law, police, and Crown legal services.

Estimates Examination: Vote Corrections

The spending proposals in the Budget are divided into areas known as ‘Votes’. Each Vote is the responsibility of a particular Minister or Ministers.

In presenting the Budget, the Government asks for specific amounts of money (‘appropriations’) to be made available to be spent in each Vote. These spending proposals are known as the ‘Estimates of Appropriations’.

Following the Budget, all the Estimates for each Vote are automatically referred to the Finance and Expenditure Committee. The Committee retains some Votes for itself to consider, but refers most on to other select committees to examine. In recent years, Vote Corrections estimates have been referred to the Justice Committee.

Select committees have 10 weeks to consider the spending proposals contained in the Votes, and to report back to the House. Committees often ask the responsible ministers to give evidence on the proposals, and ministers often bring government department officials with them to assist.

In their reports, select committees will note the main issues they considered when examining the Votes, and may recommend that the House accept or change the appropriations contained in the Votes.

Once the select committees’ reports have been presented to the House, all MPs have the opportunity to debate the spending proposals contained in each Vote. This is known as the Estimates debate.

Select Committee Estimates Examination Vote Corrections
	Final Report	Questions	Post Hearing Questions	Hansard Transcript
2024/25	Report for the Justice Committee July 2024	Standard Responses Supplementary Responses Additional supplementary responses	Standard Questions 1-27 Supplementary Questions 1-113 Supplementary Questions 114-137 Supplementary Questions Appendices 1-5	Transcript
2023/24	Report for the Justice Committee July 2023	Standard Responses Supplementary Responses	Post hearing estimates questionnaire	Draft Transcript
2022/23	Report for the Justice Committee July 2022	Standard Responses Supplementary Responses	Post hearing estimates questionnaire	Draft Transcript
2021/22	Report for the Justice Committee July 2021	Standard Responses Supplementary Responses	Post hearing estimates questionnaire	Draft Transcript
2020/21	Report of the Justice Committee July 2020	Standard Responses Supplementary Responses	Post hearing question responses	Corrected transcript
2019/20	Report of the Justice Committee July 2019	Standard responses Supplementary responses Supplementary responses corrected	Post hearing question responses	Corrected transcript
2018/19	Final Report of the Justice Committee July 2018	Standard responses Supplementary responses	N/A	N/A

Select Committee Annual Review

Government departments (such as Education, Health, and Justice) use money from the Budget to fund their operations and provide services. Government funding also extends to other organisations such as Officers of Parliament, Crown entities, public organisations, and State enterprises.

Through the annual review process, select committees hold these entities, and the Government, to account for how they have spent their allocated money. The reviews also consider how well they delivered their services, and if they achieved what they said they were going to do.

Select Committee Annual Review for the Department of Corrections
Year	Final Report	Questions	Post Hearing Questions	Hansard Transcript
2022/23	Final Report of the Justice Committee March 2024	Responses to annual review questions 2022/23 Responses to annual review questions (Appendices) 2022/23	Responses to post-hearing questions 2022/23	Corrected transcript 2022/23
2021/22	Final Report of the Justice Committee March 2023	Responses to annual review questions 2021/22 Responses to annual review questions (Appendices) 2021/22	Responses to post-hearing questions 2021/22	Corrected transcript 2021/22
2020/21	Final Report of the Justice Committee March 2022	Responses to annual review questions 2020/21	Responses to post-hearing questions 2020/21	Corrected transcript 2020/21
2019/20	Final Report of the Justice Committee March 2021	Responses to annual review questions 2019/20	Responses to post-hearing questions 2019/20 Responses to additional post-hearing questions 2019/20	Corrected transcript 2019/20
2018/19	Final Report of the Justice Committee March 2020	Responses to annual review questions 1-134 2018/19 Responses to Annual review questions 112-128 2018/19	Responses to additional post-hearing questions 2018/19 Responses to follow up re additional post-hearing questions 2018/19	Corrected transcript 2018/19
2017/18	Final Report of the Justice Committee March 2019	Responses to annual review questions 2017/18	Response to post-hearing questions 2017/18	N/A
2016/17	Final Report to the Justice Committee March 2018	Responses to annual review questions 2016/17 Responses to annual review questions 119-138 2016/17 Responses to annual review questions (Appendices) 2016/17 PDF, 1.1 MB	Supplementary information 2016/17	N/A

Consideration of Legislation

Most legislation is considered by a Select Committee before it is passed by Parliament. Committees call for written and oral submissions from the public (including individuals and organisations) and receive advice from government departments. The Committee does not change the proposed legislation directly but produces a report for consideration by the full Parliament.

The report summarises the evidence the Committee has received, expresses the Committee’s view on the contents of the proposed law, and recommends whether or not it should be passed and what changes, if any, should be made to it. If some members of the Committee disagree with the recommendations of the report, they may include a section expressing their own view on the legislation.

For example, before the Corrections Amendment Act 2019 was passed it was considered by the Justice Committee. The Committee received advice from Corrections and the Parliamentary Counsel Office, and also received submissions from members of the public and interested organisations.

You can find more information about Corrections’ legislative changes on our Policy and Legislation page.

Committee Inquiries & Briefings

As well as considering legislation referred to them, Select Committees can initiate inquiries into any matter related to their subject area. These can take the form of a formal inquiry or, more commonly, a briefing.

For formal inquiries the Committee would usually prepare its own written terms of reference, call witnesses, seek advice, and prepare a report to Parliament.

Briefings are an opportunity for the Committee’s members to inform themselves about an issue of interest or concern. They do not usually have formal terms of reference, and may or may not include hearing from witnesses, advice from government departments or other sources, or a report to Parliament.

The links below will show more information, on the Parliament website, about four briefings on which Corrections provided written and/or oral evidence to the Justice Committee:

Briefing on the Department of Corrections’ Decmil contract

Briefing on Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT)

Briefing on violence in prisons