Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 7
7
Accepted
Public appointments process remains too slow, despite recent reductions in average time.
Conclusion
The Cabinet Office agreed that it is not satisfactory that the appointments process takes so long. It noted that it is a ministerial priority to speed up the process. It reported that its latest data shows the number has fallen from an average 203 days in 2022–23 to 146 days, but acknowledged that additional work is needed to bring the number down to closer to the target of 90 days.12 The Cabinet Office attributed some of the delays to ministerial turnover as well as security vetting and reference checks. It is optimistic that the new applicant tracking system will allow it to identify where delays are occurring and intervene as needed.13 Poor data
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the principle of transparency but states that the current process, where ministers publish decisions and the Commissioner for Public Appointments records exceptional appointments, is already sufficient and no new, separate publication process is necessary.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented The government agrees with the Committee that there should be complete transparency when a minister decides to make a regulated appointment without an open and fair competition. Ministers are already required, under section 3.3 of the Governance Code on Public Appointments, where they make such a decision, to make that decision public alongside their reasons for making it. They are also required to consult with the Commissioner for Public Appointments, who publishes exceptional appointments he has been consulted upon on his website. The number of instances of ministers making such an appointment is extremely small. Given that departments already publish such decisions when they are made, and that the Commissioner already collates and records such exceptional appointments on his website, the government considers that the current process is sufficient to meet the public accountability requirements for such a small number of decisions. Establishing a separate Whitehall-wide process for collecting and regularly publishing such data, for such a small data cohort, would be disproportionate and would unnecessarily overlap with the data the Commissioner already publishes.