Regent is off one of the committees (8)
I believe the answer is:
steering
'one of the committees' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot see how they can define each other.
'regent is off' is the wordplay.
'off' indicates an anagram.
'regent'+'is'='regentis'
'regentis' is an anagram of 'STEERING'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for steering that I've seen before include "Guiding and directing, say a car" , "Controlling the direction" , "This wheel guides using integers" , "Integers (anag)" , "Mechanism that allows a vehicle to be guided" .)