Appointment of HM Chief Inspector of Prisons: matters of concern
19 March 2015
The Committee Chair has decided that the Justice Committee’s report, Appointment of HM Chief Inspector of Prisons: matters of concern, should be published on Thursday 19 March rather than at 00.01am on Friday 20 March, as previously planned, following the issuing by the Ministry of Justice of a press release on the subject on the morning of Thursday 19 March.
- Report: Appointment of HM Chief Inspector of Prisons: matters of concern
- Report: Appointment of HM Chief Inspector of Prisons: matters of concern (PDF 364 KB)
- Inquiry: The work of HM Chief Inspector of Prisons
- Justice Committee
The Justice Committee raises several concerns about the process to appoint a successor to Nick Hardwick, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons, when his term of office comes to an end in July 2015.
The Committee publishes with its report correspondence with the Secretary of State for Justice, Rt Hon Chris Grayling MP, and the Commissioner for Public Appointments, Sir David Normington GCB.
The Committee says it was not informed that two out of four members of the appointment panel were active members of the same political party as the appointing Minister. It welcomes the intention of Sir David Normington to consult on amendments to his Code of Practice for Ministerial Appointments to Public Office to cover this matter, in the light of this and other cases.
Chair's comments
Rt Hon Sir Alan Beith MP, Chair of the Justice Committee, said:
"It is unfortunate that the Secretary of State did not inform us that both independent members of the appointment panel were active Conservative Party members.
We fully accept Sir David Normington’s assurance that Lord Henley and Amanda Sater were excellent panel members who operated fully within the requirements of his Code of Practice, and we make no criticism of them.
As Sir David points out in his letter, though, 'it does not aid public confidence in the public appointments process to have an independent member of a political party or indeed to have two panel members, who are so politically associated with the Government'."
Pre-appointment scrutiny
The Committee had been expecting to receive information about the outcome of the recruitment process in time to hold a pre-appointment scrutiny hearing on 17 March. In the event Mr Grayling did not put forward a preferred candidate to the Committee, saying that although the appointment panel had recommended one person as "appointable" he was not content to propose that person "in the absence of a wider pool of candidates from which to select".
The Committee notes that Sir David Normington states that the sole candidate recommended for appointment by the panel had been "excellent".
Further comments
Sir Alan added:
"We have been given no convincing reason by Mr Grayling as to why he did not put forward to us for pre-appointment scrutiny a candidate considered "excellent" by the appointment panel. The Chief Inspector of Prisons, and the Inspectorate which he leads, are vital in assessing standards of safety, security and decency in prisons in England and Wales.
The Chief Inspector must be seen to be independent from any ministerial or political pressure. On several occasions in the past we have recommended that the Chief Inspector of Prisons be appointed on the recommendation of Parliament, not the Executive, and this case reinforces our belief that this must happen."