R6-38

The Secretary of State for Health should reconsider, with the advice of the Public Appointments Commissioner and following the Commissioner's scrutiny of the NHS appointments system (see O3 below), the appointments procedure in relation to NHS trusts and authorities with a view to setting up, if practicable, a less centralised appointments system than the present register system, subject to the need to maintain standards of performance and delivery across the NHS system. O3. We support the announcement of the Commissioner for Public Appointments that she intends undertaking a scrutiny of the appointment procedure used for NHS appointments and look forward to the report of her findings. O4. We welcome the work of the Commissioner for Public Appointments on developing measures to improve the balance of representation on the boards of public bodies and look forward to the report of her conclusions. As part of the objectives of her work, we invite her to consider. how to improve the range of candidates from which public appointees are drawn, and. how the concept of `merit' can be reconciled with the need for a balanced and appropriately qualified representation.