Posts of Deputy Chair of the Infrastructure
Planning Commission
2. The posts of Deputy Chair of the Infrastructure
Planning Commission (IPC) are positions to which the pre-appointment
scrutiny procedure applies. In proposing the procedure, the Government
expressed the view that it should apply to
positions in which Parliament has a particularly
strong interest because the officeholder exercises statutory or
other powers in relation to protecting the public's rights and
interests.[3]
As is apparent from the description of the role below—and
from interventions by Members during passage of the Bill which
became the Planning Act 2008[4]—that
criterion applies with especial force to those responsible for
the work of the IPC.
3. We considered the appointment of the Chair of
the Infrastructure Planning Commission in March this year, endorsing
the Government's appointment of Sir Michael Pitt.[5]
Deputy Chairs of public bodies are not usually subject to the
pre-appointment scrutiny procedure. The decision to subject the
posts of Deputy Chair of the IPC to such scrutiny was announced
by the Secretary of State during debate at Report stage of the
Planning Bill and followed suggestions to that effect by Members
during Committee stage of the Bill.[6]
Those suggestions were prompted by concerns about a potential
deficit in democratic accountability following transfer of responsibility
for decisions on major infrastructure projects to the IPC from
the Secretary of State. [7]
We are pleased that we have had the opportunity to question Robert
Upton and Dr Pauleen Lane, the Government's preferred candidates
for the very first Deputy Chairs of the IPC, and to express our
views on the suitability of their appointments.
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