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Changes will ensure the UK's public boards can swiftly
recruit world-class professionals to deliver essential public
services.
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Ministers can choose to delegate aspects of recruitment to
speed up the process of securing top talent, remaining
ultimately responsible for appointments.
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The biggest overhaul of the public appointments system since
2016 aims to close talent gaps caused by bureaucratic
delays.
Changes set out by the government today will make recruiting
board members of public institutions—including Ofcom, National
Highways, the Civil Aviation Authority and the British
Museum—quicker and more efficient, with the aim of securing the
best possible talent.
The old system, which saw only 13% of hiring campaigns completed
within three months in 2023-24, often struggled with excessive
delays that deterred exceptional candidates and left critical
roles unfilled. This reform tackles that challenge head-on.
In the biggest reform of the public appointments system for
nearly a decade, ministers can choose to have less involvement in
recruiting board members of public institutions. Instead of
needing to be consulted at every intermediate stage, this can now
be done by officials, speeding up the recruitment process and
minimising the risk of losing high-quality candidates to other
sectors.
Ministers will still be required, at a minimum, to agree the role
specification and the final decision on each appointment.
Further changes focused on talent attraction include making
better use of candidate reserve lists. Under the previous rules,
a candidate's details were only kept on a reserve list for 12
months, but now they will be kept for up to two years, ensuring
that quality candidates can be quickly placed into urgent,
similar roles without running an entirely new hiring
campaign.
In addition, there is a commitment that the list of public
appointments made by the Prime Minister, those made by the Crown
on the Prime Minister's recommendation, and those in which the
Prime Minister has a strong interest, will be published
on GOV.UK, with
advertising on the public appointments website to state that this
is the case.
The revised code also includes a new principle of public
appointments: ‘Public Service', which recognises that all
appointments must be seen as an opportunity to ensure that
exceptional people from across the United Kingdom are given the
chance to utilise their skills and expertise to drive progress
and deliver for the public.
These changes have been made to the Governance Code on Public
Appointments, which sets out the process and principles for the
appointment of UK and Welsh Government ministers to public sector
boards and offices.
The revised code also commits the Cabinet Office to publishing
performance information on departments with respect to the time
taken to run campaigns.
The Governance Code has not been substantively updated since it
was first published in 2016.
There are over 4000 public appointees at present in organisations
including the BBC, the Environment Agency, the Arts Council, the
Care Quality Commission, the Forestry Commission and the College
of Policing.
Public appointments are regulated by the Commissioner for Public
Appointments, Sir William Shawcross CVO.
Speaking about the changes, , Minister for the
Cabinet Office, said:
“Our public bodies work hard to serve the public every day.
“It's high time we shake things up and make it easier to get the
best people into these organisations.
“The government is breaking down barriers to radically reform the
state and deliver a decade of national renewal.
