The baseline report on the Committees and the legislative function in Trinidad and Tobago Parliament aims to propose a picture as factual as possible and an analysis as explanatory and forward looking as feasible. In other words, this baseline assessment provides a factual account of the current state of affairs of the committees and the legislative function in Trinidad and Tobago, while also providing initial thinking for the further institutional development of the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago and its committees.

The baseline report has been structured around three main chapters: a first chapter on the legislative role of the Parliament and its Committees, a second chapter on the oversight role of Parliament through the Joint Select Committees (JSCs), and a third chapter on the oversight role of the Parliament through the PAC and PAEC. A final chapter looks briefly into the newly created Committees on Governance Assurances and on Public Administration and Appropriations.

For the three main chapters, a set of assessment questions have been identified. These questions enable a comprehensive review of the composition, institutional set-up, daily functioning and (tentatively) the results of the Committees. The assessment questions have been developed based upon the relevant literature on parliamentary development, while taking into account the specific national context of Trinidad and Tobago.