Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 11
11
Deferred
Cabinet Office lacks comprehensive data on total non-executive directors serving across government boards.
Recommendation
The Cabinet Office does not know how many NEDs in total are serving on all government boards, including ALBs and government companies. The Cabinet Office and the Commissioner for Public Appointments collect data on regulated public appointments. However, the available data do not differentiate between types of public appointments, so they do not show how many appointments are for NEDs. The government’s Public Appointments Data Report 2021–22 reported 4,476 chairs and members in post at regulated government bodies as at 31 March 2022, of which NEDs were a subset.18
Government Response Summary
The government will consider including data on numbers and diversity of non-executive directors and unregulated public appointments in its annual public appointments data report as part of a new approach to data and transparency from April 2025, but notes data collection challenges and resource implications.
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government
Deferred
3a. PAC recommendation: The Cabinet Office should include data in its annual public appointments data report about numbers and diversity of: • non-executive directors specifically; and • unregulated public appointments 3.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: April 2025 3.2 The government agrees with the Committee that it should publish more comprehensive and granular data on the public appointments that it makes, including on the diversity of a broader range of appointees. Where possible, this data should be as comprehensive as current data collection mechanisms allow. 3.3 While many public appointees, both regulated and unregulated, do fill non-executive roles on the boards of departments and arm’s length bodies, “non-executive director” is not a separate, specific category of public appointment. There are no characteristics of their appointment, nor of the processes followed during their appointment, that sets them apart from other public appointees. As such, neither the Cabinet Office nor departments recognise, or make use of, such a designation for any purpose related to how the public appointments system currently runs. Attempting to separately identify and record such data, where none currently exists, would be an unnecessary burden on departments and a disproportionate exercise to undertake. However, as part of the review of data reporting set out in response to recommendation 1a, the Cabinet Office will look at whether the reporting on different categories of public appointee can be made more granular to reflect the variety of appointments that encompass the wider landscape. 3.4 As the former Committee already recognised and their report pointed out, the Cabinet Office does not currently collect and hold comprehensive central data on all unregulated appointments across government. A significant data collection exercise, with all its associated resource implications, would therefore be required to both compile and quality assure such information, and keep it up to date for regular publication. However, as set out in the response to recommendation 2b, this will be kept under review as usage of the digital platform for unregulated appointments expands and data across the full appointments landscape improves. 3.5 When the government implements a new approach to data and transparency from April 2025, as set out in the response to recommendation 1a, that will reflect a considered evaluation of what data metrics might be reported on specifically for different categories of appointee and for unregulated appointments already within the digital system.