Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 1
1
Accepted
Committee took evidence on non-executive director appointments across government.
Conclusion
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Cabinet Office, the Government’s Lead Non-Executive, and the Chair of the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) about non-executive director appointments across government departments and public bodies.1
Government Response Summary
The government states it agrees and has implemented the recommendation, describing ongoing work by the Cabinet Office to improve efficiency, training, and data use in the public appointments system, including establishing a digital resources hub.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented The Cabinet Office has been working with departments to look at ways in which efficiency can be improved across the entire public appointments system, so as to reduce the time the process takes, and to identify and spread good practice. Capacity building work is underway to expand the central induction training offer for all public appointment teams, including senior civil servants, to ensure they receive timely, comprehensive guidance on how to run effective and efficient public appointments, with particular emphasis on meeting the requirements on timeliness and candidate care. The Cabinet Office is working on improving interconnectivity across teams in government, to build a better public appointments network. This includes identifying and sharing best practice, increased use of data (including Key Performance Indicators) to measure performance, and more strategic approaches to accessing and using the extensive experience across departments to make system-wide improvements. The latter includes the Cabinet Office undertaking deep dives with departments to discuss and constructively challenge departments on their forward planning of appointments. The automation central to the digital platform is already reducing the administrative burden on departments, so that they have more time to focus on running efficient campaigns. This includes the automation of the collection of diversity data and centralised reporting processes. The Cabinet Office has recently established a digital resources hub for sharing good practice that all departments will have access to. This will provide a single, secure point of contact for departments to access guidance, training materials and information on best and innovative practice.