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Following on from a major London Assembly scrutiny session last month, these MPs by contrast, are drawn from across the UK and so we expected interest on every strand of our activity, but also most specifically from their areas – Scotland, Wales and the English regions of the North-West, South-West, West Midlands and Yorkshire & Humberside.

Normally there are a handful of people attending to listen in on a Select Committee meeting, but today the room was packed. Seb Coe and Paul Deighton from LOCOG appeared together with John Armitt and David Higgins from the ODA for over an hour, fielding questions on everything from the IOC’s '9.75 out of 10' for London’s plans, the stunning and visual progress on the Olympic Park, our commitment for millions of affordable tickets, and the lessons from Beijing 2008. One key moment was during the discussion around the current economic climate, when Paul Deighton pointed out that Team GB and ParalympicsGB’s success this year meant that companies were reacting to the excitement by thinking “I’d love to be a part of that”.

Followed by an appearance by Charles Allen, Olympian Jonathan Edwards and Andy Worthington from the 2012 team in the North-West, MPs had a further opportunity to quiz them about the achievements in the nations and regions – from the potential of Live Sites, Pre-Games Training Camps and tourism through to our venues around the country and our volunteering programme. Charles Allen put this most personally when he said that, somehow, we need to find a way for ”everyone to have their olympic moment” – and one idea to look at might be some form of mass participation programme.

Tessa Jowell followed us to talk about security, the budget and skills – and finally the morning’s scrutiny was over. The whole session lasted almost three hours, with a crowded room full of researchers and journalists following every word. The session's webcast is up here and the transcript will be posted here.

These sessions require a huge amount of preparation for all those appearing. As a scrutiny manager, I see this in itself as a real benefit, as senior people take stock of any and every area within their organisation and the challenges it faces. It also allows for MPs and others to seek reassurance of our plans, and for constituents - the people - to be informed and a little bit inspired. Some will think about how to get their own Olympic moment – and, indeed, a Paralympic one, too.