Conclusion 2

The Cabinet Office’s guidance clearly says that departments should engage early and openly with select committees to enable effective scrutiny of the Government’s choices for key senior public roles. This should include consulting on job descriptions, timetabling and advertising. The first we heard of the recruitment campaign for a new SSAC Chair, however, was when the campaign was launched in May 2020. Even then, we only received formal communication from the Department after Committee staff raised the issue with DWP officials. Given that the vacancy had arisen some nine months previously, it is not clear why no attempt was made to engage with us or with our predecessor Committee earlier. The Secretary of State of state is “embarrassed” by this failing. We understand that she has asked officials to look into what caused it, and we are grateful for her efforts to address this.