What's hot on committee corridor?

Pepper the Robot, visiting Parliament...

October is the coolest month - at least on Parliament's committee corridor; it's the month when new inquiries really get going.

And the new crop suggest that the Commons select committees are really sinking their teeth into big, long-term issues, potentially supplying a wide-ranging social agenda to a government busy with Brexit.

I've written before about Health Committee Chair Sarah Wollaston's cross-committee campaign to revamp the adult social care system, and Defence Committee Chair Julian Lewis's call for a major increase in spending - but the muscle flexing in committee-land does not stop there.

Here are a few more highlights:

Even though the Terminator (Ret'd) is pictured on the Chair Robert Halfon's Twitter profile, the Education Committee has not invited Arnold Schwarzenegger to give evidence in their new inquiry into the rise of the robots, or the Fourth Industrial Revolution, to give it its formal title.

A driverless car by Pony.ai put through its paces at this year's World Artificial Intelligence Conference

But their look at the sweeping implications of artificial intelligence for jobs and the shape of the economy (one estimate suggests that in the long term 47% of jobs may be under threat from new robotics and artificial intelligence technologies) promises to be one of the most important long-term investigations of this Parliament.

The committee has already been in the field visiting tech hubs like the one in Sheffield, and will start taking evidence from experts, next week, about how teaching in schools should be re-shaped. Intriguingly, the witness list for their hearing on 16 October includes "Pepper, Robot".

And as if that isn't enough, their inquiry into Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) is shaping up to be a mega-production with (count them) 10 evidence sessions planned, and 600 written submissions received so far.

This is an issue with many subplots - and the deluge of written submissions shows the level of interest among parents as well as professionals. Things have been rather quiet in education policy for a while, but the committee may be about to make a few waves.

Harriet Harman's Human Rights Committee (a joint committee with peers as well as MPs) has a couple of troubling inquiries on young people's issues: they have been taking evidence in private on the use of restraint and solitary confinement in youth detention, from young people who have experienced them; and they're also looking at the police practice around the use of child informants as part of investigations into youth gangs and "county lines" drug operations.

What does the rubric "Global Britain" actually mean? The Foreign Affairs Committee is trying to put some flesh on the soundbite and perhaps come up with a post-Brexit foreign policy strategy. The more I think about this, the more ambitious it sounds... and it may be the biggest example yet of select committees trying to fill the policy vacuum left by Brexit-preoccupied ministers.

A committee that has launched into a series of eye-catching new inquiries under its new Chair, Mary Creagh, is the Environmental Audit Committee - which pushed for a latte levy on disposable coffee cups and highlighted the problems with one-use plastics.

Now it is focusing on the sustainability of the fashion industry, including the impact of disposable 'fast fashion' and the waste and pollution involved in clothing manufacture - including the issue of microfiber pollution.

The shape of Britain's post-Brexit immigration system is one of the biggest questions around leaving the EU - and the Home Affairs Committee is on the case, taking evidence on the treatment of overseas students, and high-skilled immigration.

Caught between low cost internet competitors and fast rising business rates, town centres have been feeling the strain, and the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee has been looking at how the retail and hospitality sectors can survive and prosper. It is early days, but they seem to be pondering a package of planning reforms and tax and rates changes.

The combination of a government absorbed by one overwhelming issue, and a Commons where ministers lack a commanding majority, has created a uniquely favourable moment for select committees to strut their stuff - especially since almost all of them are led by strong ambitious chairs.

They are now a bigger factor in politics than ever before - and it will be fascinating to see what they make of the opportunity.