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Appointments to public bodies: your views needed

Summary: The consultation closes on 28 September 2011 - please submit your views

INTRODUCTION BY SIR DAVID NORMINGTON, FIRST CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSIONER AND COMMISSIONER FOR PUBLIC APPOINTMENTS

I took up my appointment in this dual role on 1 April 2011 with a specific remit to review the public appointments system with a view to it becoming “more proportionate, principles and risk-based”. For the last three months, therefore, I have been examining every aspect of how public appointments regulation has developed since it was first established in 1995. I have met over 200 people with an interest in public appointments, including independent assessors, Government officials, other Commissioners, auditors, search consultants, constitutional experts and some of those who have been through the system as candidates. I have reviewed documentary evidence and read the relevant reports of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, the Institute for Government and the Public Administration Select Committee. My terms of reference particularly ask me to draw on relevant experience from the regulatory system developed for Civil Service appointments. As the first holder of the posts of both First Civil Service Commissioner and Commissioner for Public Appointments I have a unique opportunity to compare and contrast both systems. Even on the basis of only three months‟ experience, it is striking to me how much the systems have diverged and now represent quite different approaches to regulation. I have found general agreement that very good progress has been made over 15 years in establishing that Ministerial appointments to public office should be on merit after a fair and open process and that there should be clear processes in place to guard against cronyism and political patronage. But I have also found dissatisfaction with the complexity of the processes which have developed and a perception that the focus is now more on getting the process right rather than getting the right outcome.
The system has moved quite way from the original ambition of the Committee on Standards in Public Life (the Nolan Committee) in 1995 that “regulation should be undertaken with a light touch and without introducing unnecessary bureaucracy”. I have concluded, therefore, that the regulatory system is now ready for a major overhaul to return it to something clearer and simpler, more risk-based and more focused on the basic job of getting the best candidates from a strong and diverse field. I also want to ensure that it is clear that responsibility for meeting the requirements of merit, fairness and openness rests, as it should, firmly with Government Departments. In recent years Ministers have made on average 1300 new appointments to public bodies and statutory offices each year. There will be fewer than this after the current Government‟s reforms but there could still be at least 800 a year. These public bodies spend billions of pounds of public money and are responsible for many issues that directly affect the safety, protection and well being of the public. My aim is a regulatory system that helps widen the field of potential candidates and get the very best people into these roles. I set out my proposals for achieving this in the rest of this document. I want this to be the start of an active and lively consultation period and would welcome comments from anyone with something to say. David Normington

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