1. On 10 December 2009 the Attorney General informed
us that Mr Michael Fuller, Chief Constable of Kent, was her preferred
candidate for the post of Chief Inspector of the Crown Prosecution
Service; and she invited us to report on his suitability for the
role.[1] This appointment
is the third we have scrutinized under the initiative to extend
parliamentary oversight and improve the accountability of key
public appointments. The first was the Chair of the Office of
Legal Complaints and the second was a new Information Commissioner.[2]
2. The timing of this appointment was fortuitous
as we had recently published our findings in relation to the work
of the Crown Prosecution Service.[3]
In preparation for the hearing, we took further oral evidence
from the current Chief Inspector, Mr Stephen Wooler CB, on 8 December
2009 and subsequently conducted a pre-appointment hearing with
Mr Fuller on 12 January 2010. This evidence, together with relevant
memoranda, is published with this report, and it indicates the
wide range of matters with which the Inspectorate will need to
concern itself and suggested priorities in doing so.
Pre-appointment hearings were recommended in the
Liaison's Committee's report Shifting the Balance Sheet: Select
Committees and the Executive published in 2000 (HC 384, 2007-08).
Although the idea was initially rejected by the Government, the
July 2007 Governance of Britain Green Paper contained a
proposal for select committee scrutiny of prospective appointments
in the following terms: "…the hearing would be non-binding,
but in the light of the report from the [relevant select] committee
the Minister would decide whether to proceed. The hearings would
cover issues such as the candidate's suitability for the role,
his or her key priorities, and the process used in selection…"
(HC 594, Annex A, 2007-08).
A list of posts proposed by the Government
as suitable for pre-appointment scrutiny was published by the
Liaison Committee in 2008. A list of the appointments that come
under the aegis of the Ministry of Justice and the Attorney-General's
Office is annexed to this report (Annex B) and includes HM Chief
Inspector of the Crown Prosecution Service. Back
2
Seventh Report from the Committee, Session 2007-08, Appointment
of the Chair of the Office of Legal Complaints, HC 1122, and
the Third Report from the Committee, Session 2008-09, The work
of the Information Commissioner: appointment of a new Commissioner,
HC 146. Back
3
Ninth Report from the Committee, Session 2008-09, The Crown
Prosecution Service: Gatekeeper of the Criminal Justice System,
HC 186. Back
