Appendix 2: Letter to Chair from Rt Hon
Frances Maude MP, Minister for the Cabinet Office, 21 July 2010
Recruitment competition for First Civil Service
Commissioner/Commissioner for Public Appointments
I am writing to let you know that the Cabinet Office
is shortly to begin the recruitment process to fill the posts
of First Civil Service Commissioner and Commissioner for Public
Appointments. The five year non-renewable terms of the current
postholders (Dame Janet Paraskeva and Dame Janet Gaymer respectively)
come to an end in December 2010.
I plan to recruit for a single individual to fill
both these posts. The two separate appointments processes for
the civil service and public appointments would be retained. But
the combined role would be used to achieve synergies and efficiencies
between the two. I know that the case for closer alignment of
the two regulatory frameworks has been made in the past by both
your Committee and the Committee on Standards in public Life.
I expect this change to promote proportionate and principle-based
regulation in a more efficient manner without diluting the regulation
of civil service and public appointments.
Both posts had previously been identified as appropriate
for pre-appointment scrutiny by the relevant select committee.
Accordingly I am seeking your agreement to your Committee holding
a pre-appointment hearing for the Government's nominated candidate,
following an open competition. If you agree, my officials will
liaise with the Clerk of the Committee to identify possible dates
in the Committee's calendar (likely to be in mid/late October).
I will of course write to you again ahead of the hearing and following
the open competition to let you know the name of the Government's
nominated candidate.
| 
