1 Background to the pre-appointment
hearing
1. The July 2007 Green Paper, The Governance
of Britain, proposed the introduction of pre-appointment hearings
for key public officials in which Parliament has a particularly
strong interest. It stated that, in each case, it should fall
to the relevant select committee to conduct the hearing, which
should cover "issues such as the candidate's suitability
for the role, his or her key priorities, and the process used
in selection".[1]
The Government's proposal was welcomed by the Liaison Committee,
which entered into discussions with the Cabinet Office on the
framework for pre-appointment hearings and, in particular, which
appointments should be subject to them. A final list of such posts
was agreed between the Liaison Committee and the Government in
May 2008.[2] These arrangements
are currently being reviewed jointly by the Liaison Committee
and the Cabinet Office.
2. The House of Commons Liaison Committee has
published guidance for committees to ensure that hearings are
conducted appropriately. The outcome of the hearing is non-binding,
although the report from a committee holding a pre-appointment
hearing should inform Ministers' decision-making on whether or
not to proceed.
3. S4C is the world's only publicly-funded Welsh
language television broadcaster. Its services are provided under
statute by the Welsh Authority, also known as the S4C Authority,
which in turn falls under the responsibility of the Department
for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). In May 2011 the Welsh Affairs
Committee published a Report which examined the performance of
the S4C Authority and the output of the channel.[3]
That Report, and the Report on the BBC published shortly afterwards
by the Culture, Media and Sport Committee,[4]
also examined the prospects for the channel in the light of the
proposed changes to S4C's funding and governance made in the October
2010 Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR).
4. The post of Chairman of the S4C Authority
was not one of the positions originally named in The Governance
of Britain or in the list of posts subject to pre-appointment
hearings which was subsequently issued by the Cabinet Office.
Nonetheless, in March 2011 the Culture, Media and Sport Select
Committee, with the cooperation of the DCMS, held a pre-appointment
hearing with the Government's preferred candidate for the role
of Chairman of the BBC Trust, after that Committee had repeatedly
recommended that the role be added to the list of posts subject
to such scrutiny. This set an important precedent and the Welsh
Affairs Committee, in its recent Report on S4C, recommended that:
[...] on completion of the interview process for
the new Chairman of S4C, the preferred candidate should attend
a hearing of this Committee to explain his or her proposals for
the future direction and strategy of S4C.[5]
5. On 4 May 2011, Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP, Secretary
of State for Culture, Media and Sport wrote to the Chairs of the
Culture, Media and Sport Committee and the Welsh Affairs Committee
to inform them that Huw Jones was the Government's preferred candidate
to take up the vacant post of Chairman of S4C and invited the
two Committees to hold a pre-appointment hearing with the candidate.[6]
The Secretary of State's letter, the candidate's curriculum vitae
and a memorandum by the Government setting out the requirements
of the post and details of the recruitment process, are all printed
with this Report.
6. We accordingly invited Huw Jones to attend
a pre-appointment hearing on 24 May.
1 Cm 7170, para 76 Back
2
The full list is set out in the First Special Report of the Liaison
Committee, Session 2007-08, HC 594, Pre-appointment hearings
by select committees: Government response to the Committee's First
Report of Session 2007-08 Back
3
Welsh Affairs Committee, Fifth Report of Session 2010-12, HC 614 Back
4
Culture, Media and Sport Committee, BBC Licence Fee Settlement
and Annual Report, Fourth Report of Session 2010-12, HC 454 Back
5
Welsh Affairs Committee, Fifth Report of Session 2010-12, HC 614,
para 150 Back
6
Since the resignation of John Walter Jones as Chairman of
S4C , the post has been held on an Interim basis by Rheon Tomos.
The post of Chief Executive is also currently filled on a temporary
basis. Back
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