Thursday 28 January 2021
The Commissioner for Public Appointments has written to the Chair of the Education Select Committee, Robert Halfon MP, regarding the appointments process to find the next Chair of Office for Students. Letter to Robert Halfon MP 28 January 2021 (PDF, 160KB)
Wednesday 6 January 2021
The Commissioner for Public Appointments has written to the Chair of the DCMS Select Committee, Julian Knight MP, regarding the government’s preferred candidate for BBC Chair. Letter to Julian Knight MP 6 January 2021 (PDF, 635KB)
Friday 11 December 2020
All public bodies have faced unexpected and demanding new challenges in 2020, coping with the direct impact of Covid and finding new ways of working. But the pandemic has also sharpened longstanding arguments about the importance of diversity and representation in all walks of public life. Speaking to members of the Public Chairs Forum and […]
Thursday 26 November 2020
Public bodies are leading the way. For the first time, women account for more than half, 51 per cent, of all new public appointments and reappointments, and ethnic minorities over 15 per cent, in both cases ahead of the Government’s targets on overall appointees in post. These figures are also well above what has been […]
Thursday 4 June 2020
I have been very sympathetic to requests by departments to freeze competitions and to extend the tenure of current incumbents, or to make temporary interim appointments, and my office has speedily processed such submissions. There are several reasonable factors. In some cases, key officials involved in appointments or in interviewing have been transferred into direct […]
Wednesday 13 May 2020
Under the Cabinet Office Governance Code, every appointment must have an independent member involved in the process, but for what are known as ‘significant appointments’, commonly those where the post is high profile, notably the chair of a body, a regulator or prominent office holder, there must be a Senior Independent Panel Member (SIPM) to […]
Wednesday 13 May 2020
During a sit down with OCPA, Cindy explains the purpose and objectives of Senior Independent Panel Members, how they provide assurance to the system, and what that means for people applying to, and ministers making, public appointments. A transcript for Cindy’s video all our SIPMs is available. Cindy also has information and tips for candidates […]
Monday 23 March 2020
The Commissioner and the Welsh Government agreed a temporary pause on competitions for public appointments made by Welsh Ministers, on 23 March 2020. You can read the full detail of the announcement (PDF, 1 page, 620KB). For an accessible version of this, please contact the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments. The decision remained […]
Friday 6 March 2020
Due diligence is an important part of the public appointments process, to check whether there are any reputational risks raised by the candidates being considered. Yet there are unresolved questions about how due diligence should be undertaken in order to be fair to applicants and not to produce avoidable delays in competitions. The Governance Code […]
Tuesday 10 December 2019
The understanding of the importance of diversity on the boards of public bodies has grown increasingly in recent years. Public bodies make decisions that impact upon all of us and it is crucial that the individuals making those decisions are reflective of the society they serve. Decisions are more effective when they are led by […]
