Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee

Thirtieth Report - Non-executive appointments

Public Accounts Committee HC 460 Published 8 May 2024

Report Status

Government responded

Conclusions & Recommendations

23 items (11 recs)

Source

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Government Response

AI assessment · 23 of 23 classified

Accepted 14

Accepted in Part 1

Acknowledged 3

Deferred 4

Not Addressed 1

Recommendations

8 results

4 Accepted

Publish new public appointments diversity action plan and report on panel diversity data collection.

Recommendation

The appointments process is not set up to encourage diversity amongst NEDs. In June 2019, the government launched a Public Appointments Diversity Action Plan to focus on broadening access and improving the diversity and quality of appointees. The plan included … Read more The appointments process is not set up to encourage diversity amongst NEDs. In June 2019, the government launched a Public Appointments Diversity Action Plan to focus on broadening access and improving the diversity and quality of appointees. The plan included an ambition for 50% of all public appointees to be female and 14% of yearly appointments to be from ethnic minority backgrounds by 2022. The Cabinet Office did not meet those targets, reporting that in 2021–22 47% of all serving public appointees were female and 12% of all appointments and re-appointments went to people who were from an ethnic minority background. We recognise that the National Audit Office’s analysis found that the diversity of new appointees has improved: it found that in 2022–23, 53.7% of new appointees were female and 14.6% were from an ethnic minority background. But the Cabinet Office has not put in place a new diversity targets and has no plans to do so. Nor could it point us to convincing examples of how it deals with conscious and unconscious bias within the appointments process. Without checks on any bias, the current Non-executive appointments 7 process—in which ministers appoint the Advisory Assessment Panels who identify appointable candidates on which ministers then make a final decision—risks seeming insular and circular. While Ministers can only directly appoint a non- executive director in “exceptional cases” when making regulated appointments, there is no such restriction for unregulated appointments and it is not apparent if this has occurred or how frequently. Recommendation 4: In its Treasury Minute response to this report, the Cabinet Office should: a) state a date by when it will put in place a new diversity action plan for public appointments; b) set out the steps it has taken so far to review the feasibility and usefulness of compiling data on the diversity makeup of members of Advisory Assessment Panels, and the date by which it would report its conclusions to Parliam Show less

Government Response Summary

The government agrees to the recommendation and commits to starting data collection on the diversity makeup of Advisory Assessment Panel members across departments in the 2025-26 financial year, for subsequent publication.

HM Treasury

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5 Accepted

Evaluate outreach activities, enhance NED training, and create a new governance code.

Recommendation

We are not convinced that current outreach activities are helping government to recruit the best candidates for NED roles. The Cabinet Office, the Government Lead Non-Executive, and the Commissioner for Public Appointments have all publicly declared their interest in improving … Read more We are not convinced that current outreach activities are helping government to recruit the best candidates for NED roles. The Cabinet Office, the Government Lead Non-Executive, and the Commissioner for Public Appointments have all publicly declared their interest in improving outreach in order to encourage diverse and talented applicants to apply for public appointments from a wide range of sectors, including the private and voluntary sectors, as well as veterans and disabled groups. The Cabinet Office has sought to strengthen its outreach activities to encourage people to apply for public appointments, for example, by holding in-person events around the UK and by running a Boardroom Apprentice Programme, whereby people with no experience on boards can serve as an observer on a board for a year to gain experience. The Cabinet Office could do more to demonstrate the effectiveness of these activities and to learn lessons to better focus its outreach work: for instance it does not have data of sufficient quality on the social and professional backgrounds of candidates. It is important that, as part of being fully effective, candidates to be a non-executive director should expect to regularly engage with ministers at all levels within a department. Recommendation 8: a) In its Treasury Minute response to this report, the Cabinet Office should set out how it is measuring the effectiveness of its outreach activities and what plans it has to develop them further to reach a wider pool of candidates. b) The selection and recruitment process for non-executive directors should cover the need for them to regularly engage with ministers at all levels within a department, and there should also be in-post training to support this objective. In addition, the Cabinet Office should draw up a new code of best governance practice, which should include a requirement that all ministers and non-executive directors attend departmental board meetings as a matter of routine – this new code s Show less

Government Response Summary

The government states it agrees with the recommendation and claims it is already implemented, believing the current system for job descriptions and scrutiny works appropriately. It commits only to reinforcing the message of quality assurance and clearance in existing public appointment guidance documents.

HM Treasury

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12 Accepted

Cabinet Office does not recognise non-executive directors as a distinct appointment category.

Recommendation

We challenged the Cabinet Office on how it can provide effective oversight if it does not know how many NEDs there are serving on all government boards. The Cabinet Office responded that it does not recognise NEDs as a distinct … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government agrees to include data in its annual public appointments data report about numbers and diversity of non-executive directors specifically and unregulated public appointments, with a target implementation date of April 2025.

HM Treasury

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15 Accepted

Explicit standards of independence for NEDs are lacking; political donations not tracked.

Recommendation

We questioned the witnesses about what standards of independence they would expect from NEDs, in particular how independent they should be from ministers with whom they will be working. The Cabinet Office told us that this is not set out … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government believes the current processes are rigorous and therefore does not consider further guidance or process necessary.

HM Treasury

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17 Accepted

Cabinet Office failed to meet 2022 diversity targets and lacks future aspirations.

Recommendation

In June 2019, the Cabinet Office launched a Public Appointments Diversity Action Plan (the Plan”) to focus on broadening access and improving the diversity and quality of appointees.31 The Plan set out ambitions for 50% of all public appointees to … Read more

Government Response Summary

The Cabinet Office will publish a new plan to improve diversity across the public appointments system by October 2025.

HM Treasury

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18 Accepted

Government lacks comprehensive diversity data for NEDs, particularly on social background and disability.

Recommendation

We questioned the witnesses about their current approach to diversity. The Government’s Lead Non-Executive noted that he thought the only target that would make sense in the long-run would be a 50% split of gender between men and women.34 The … Read more

Government Response Summary

The Cabinet Office will publish a new plan to improve diversity across the public appointments system by October 2025.

HM Treasury

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19 Accepted

No requirement or tracking exists for scrutinising job advertisements for unconscious bias.

Recommendation

We asked about what was done to address conscious or unconscious bias in the way jobs are advertised and described. The Cabinet Office said that the written description and criteria were vital and, indeed, served as the basis for judging … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government states that job descriptions and advertisements are already scrutinized and cleared by a senior civil servant and the responsible minister, and will reinforce the message of appropriate quality assurance and clearance in public appointment guidance documents.

HM Treasury

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23 Accepted

Outreach measurement for public appointments remains incomplete, lacking social and professional background data.

Recommendation

We questioned the witnesses about their outreach initiatives and how success will be measured. When we asked how they measured success of “roadshow” events, the Cabinet Office told us that it tracks whether people sign up on the website and … Read more We questioned the witnesses about their outreach initiatives and how success will be measured. When we asked how they measured success of “roadshow” events, the Cabinet Office told us that it tracks whether people sign up on the website and noted that 84% of attendees to the outreach events it has held so far strongly agree that they would recommend interest or involvement in the public appointments process to friends or colleagues. It told us that it was continuing to measure data against gender and ethnicity, but that its measures are less good for social background and it has not analysed by professional background either. The Government’s Lead Non-Executive noted that hosting outreach 40 C&AG’s Report, para 3 41 Q 73 42 Q 81 43 Q 88 44 Correspondence from Cabinet Office to Public Accounts Committee, 26 March 2024 45 Q 75 46 Q 77; C&AG’s Report, paras 13, 3.12, 3.13 47 C&AG’s Report, para 3.12 48 Q 84; C&AG’s Report, Figure 12 Non-executive appointments 15 evens is a big cost to Government so it needs to be sure that what it is doing is working. He told us that it is important that Cabinet Office measures the impact and holds itself to account for whether these activities are successful.49 When we asked how the new website might help broaden outreach, the Cabinet Office told us that it was recycling candidates from past searches who were found appointable but were not appointed. When we asked what was being done to reach new talent, the Cabinet Office assured us it was seeing fresh talent coming through but also want to make use of ‘near misses’ from past campaigns. When we asked if it was advertising opportunities in places where they would be seen by diverse audiences, the Cabinet Office told us that it was primarily using the official government website. It told us that 12,000 people had registered for the government website and approximately 5,000 had uploaded their CVs.50 49 Q 80 50 Qq 77–79 16 Non-executive appointments Show less

Government Response Summary

The government stated it has revamped its talent and outreach offer, reaching over 2,500 people and doubling its social media reach, and will continue and enhance this activity, while tracking the progress of attendees through the applicant tracking system.

HM Treasury

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Conclusions (6)

Observations and findings

2 Conclusion Accepted

The Cabinet Office does not yet have the data it needs to oversee the appointments process effectively. Until April 2023, the Cabinet Office’s only method of collecting data about public appointments was a manual exercise, requesting data from departments once a year, in which errors and inconsistencies were common. Its …

Government Response Summary

The government agrees the new applicant tracking system should be preferred and will write to all departments by the end of December 2024 to encourage wider use for unregulated appointments. They note that expanding full use will require an incremental approach to build capacity.

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3 Conclusion Accepted

The Cabinet Office does not publish transparent information about NEDs, the diversity of panels who select them, or the requirements for independence in these roles. The Cabinet Office publishes an annual report on regulated public appointments, of which there were 4,476 in post as of March 2022. However, this report …

Government Response Summary

The government states it considers current processes for integrity and independence, governed by existing codes and principles, to be rigorous and therefore does not deem further guidance or process necessary. They also disagree with a separate recommendation regarding consulting the Commissioner on unregulated appointments.

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1 Conclusion Accepted

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.

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6 Conclusion Accepted

The NAO and the Commissioner for Public Appointments have noted that delays can put off candidates, leading them to withdraw their application or deterring them from applying in the first place.8 The Cabinet Office also told us that its outreach work showed that people can feel put off applying in …

Government Response Summary

The government agrees to review and consult on how to streamline recruitment and selection processes to reduce delays and improve diversity, with the outcomes to be published in a new approach by October 2025.

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7 Conclusion Accepted

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, …

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.

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22 Conclusion Accepted

The Cabinet Office told us that one of its priorities is outreach, to develop a talent pool of potential applicants. The Government’s Lead Non-Executive and the Commissioner for Public Appointments have also declared their intention to improve outreach. The Cabinet Office told us that it has reached out to private-sector …

Government Response Summary

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