Letter to Rt Hon The Baroness Amos from
the Chairman of the Committee
I am writing at the request of the Foreign Affairs
Committee to inform you that at its meeting this week the Committee
discussed the recent announcement of your appointment as the next
High Commissioner to Australia.
In 2008 the Committee took oral evidence from the
Rt Hon Jack McConnell MSP in advance of his anticipated appointment
as High Commissioner to Malawi, and produced a Report dealing
with this matter. In its subsequent Report on The FCO Annual
Report 2007-08, the Committee concluded that:
It is right that questions should be asked when
a politician is appointed to a senior diplomatic post. [...] Such
appointments should continue to be made only in exceptional circumstances,
and [...] they should be subject to parliamentary scrutiny. (Second
Report of 2008-09, HC 195, para 166)
In accord with its decision to conduct "pre-appointment
hearings" with all major appointments of non-diplomats to
diplomatic posts, the Committee therefore requests that you should
give oral evidence to it.
As the appointment is due to commence in October,
the Committee suggests that the most suitable time for a hearing
would be on a mutually convenient date in September (before the
start of the party conferences). The Committee also takes the
view that it would be inappropriate for the appointment to proceed
until this evidence session has been held, and I shall be writing
to the Foreign Secretary to convey this view.
I should add that the Committee will shortly
be in touch again with a series of written questions to which
it would be grateful to receive answers before the hearing; and
it will also be requesting a written memorandum from the FCO.
10 July 2009
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