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Ministers are planning to speed up public appointments to bodies such as Ofcom, the Environment Agency and BBC by allowing more of the hiring process to be delegated to senior officials.
In the biggest shake-up of the public appointments process in a decade, the Cabinet Office is producing new guidance governing how candidates can be picked for about 4,000 public roles.
The changes are being made because of excessive delays in the hiring system and extended vacancies, with ministers currently consulted at every step of the process – meaning only about one in seven appointments were completed in less than three months.
Under the new rules, ministers will be able to choose to delegate much more of the process to officials, while retaining the final say over who is chosen and the job specification.
Others changes include allowing candidates to remain on a “reserve list” for two years rather than 12 months, ensuring that they can be considered and hired quickly if an appointment falls through – without having to run an entirely new hiring campaign.
The revised code also includes a new “public service” principle of public appointments, which recognises that all appointments must be seen as an opportunity to “ensure that exceptional people from across the UK are given the chance to utilise their skills and expertise to drive progress and deliver for the public”.
As part of a new transparency drive, the Cabinet Office is also publishing a full list of all public appointments that are made by the prime minister or by the crown on his recommendation, or those in which he has a strong interest. The list has never been formally published before.
It shows prime ministerial appointments include the board of the BBC, museums including the Tate and the British Museum, various ethics watchdogs, the information commissioner and the governor of the Bank of England.
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The public appointments process is governed by a commissioner, William Shawcross, who provides independent assurance that public appointments are made in accordance with the code.
In recent years, the process has been criticised for taking too long and leaving vacancies open, as well as for allowing ministers to make their own choices independently of assessment panels in exceptional circumstances.
The Institute for Government argued in 2022 that the code should remove ministers’ ability to appoint a candidate judged not suitable by an assessment panel.
The new code will still allow this to happen, stating: “Ministers should consider the advice of advisory assessment panels but are not bound by their views. Ministers may therefore reject a panel’s advice on the merit of candidates and choose to rerun a competition with a new panel.
“Ministers may choose to appoint someone who is not deemed ‘appointable’ by the advisory assessment panel. In this case, they must consult the commissioner for public appointments in good time before a public announcement to justify their decision publicly.”
The code also allows ministers to appoint a candidate without a competition in exceptional cases, in consultation with the commissioner for public appointments. This exemption has already been used 27 times this year, mostly owing to unexpected vacancies and failed recruitment campaigns.
There are more than 4,000 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.
Announcing the changes, Nick Thomas-Symonds, a Cabinet Office minister, 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.”
