Steve McKay and colleagues from Birmingham, Coventry and the LSE have published two blogs on the PSA Parliaments Group website. One examines the effectiveness of select committees in informing the House of Commons, as measured by whether they are debated in some forum in the House. It suggests that while there may have been some improvement over time, there is scope for considering other ways by which this core task might be enhanced. The other considers the extent to which select committee work is based on consensus, looking at the number of divisions between 1985-86 and 2016-17. They note that while there has been a decline in divisions, that is not necessarily unproblematic if, for example, committees maintain consensus by avoiding politically difficult topics.