Committees

Submissions wanted on Pre-Appointment Hearings

23 March 2018

The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee launches an inquiry into pre-appointment hearings.

Pre-appointment hearings

Since 2008 the Government's preferred candidate for certain important public appointments have been subject to pre-appointment hearings with the relevant Select Committee prior to Minister's confirming the appointment. The list of appointments subject to a pre-appointment hearing is contained in Cabinet Office Guidance: pre-appointment scrutiny by House of Commons select committees 2009.

The Liaison Committee has defined the purposes of pre-appointment hearings as:

  • Scrutinising the quality of ministerial decision making,
  • Providing public reassurance, in addition to the processes of the Office for the Commissioner of Public Appointments, that those appointed to key public offices have been selected on merit;
  • Enhancing appointee's legitimacy in undertaking their function; and,
  • Providing public evidence of the independence of mind of the candidate.

Since the current Liaison Committee guidance was agreed the 2016 Grimstone review substantially changed the powers and role of the Officer for the Commissioner of Public Appointments. There have also been several contentious hearings, such as the recent DCMS Committee report on the appointment of the Chair of the Charity Commission.

In this changed context, the Committee will examine whether the existing "purposes" for pre-appointment hearings, and the current process and guidance, need to be updated.

Call for written submissions

The Committee specifically welcomes submissions on:

  • The implications of the weakening of the formal powers of the Commissioner of Public Appointments following the Grimstone Review for the purposes and practice of pre-appointment hearings;
  • Whether Parliamentary procedure should be strengthened to ensure that prior to confirming an appointment despite a negative Committee report that Ministers properly consider the Committee's recommendation and account to Parliament for their decision to set it aside? 
  • Whether the list of appointments subject to pre-appointment hearings should be updated or expanded? and
  • How the pre-appointment hearing process can contribute to increasing the diversity of public appointments?

The deadline for submissions is Friday 4 May 2018.

Further information

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