Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority
The Committee consisted of the following Members:
† Brake, Tom (Deputy Leader of the House of Commons)
† Bruce, Fiona (Congleton) (Con)
† Byles, Dan (North Warwickshire) (Con)
† Docherty, Thomas (Dunfermline and West Fife) (Lab)
† Donohoe, Mr Brian H. (Central Ayrshire) (Lab)
† Hands, Greg (Treasurer of Her Majesty's Household)
† Harris, Rebecca (Castle Point) (Con)
† James, Margot (Stourbridge) (Con)
Kaufman, Sir Gerald (Manchester, Gorton) (Lab)
† Lazarowicz, Mark (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab/Co-op)
Meacher, Mr Michael (Oldham West and Royton) (Lab)
† Newton, Sarah (Truro and Falmouth) (Con)
† Shannon, Jim (Strangford) (DUP)
† Stephenson, Andrew (Pendle) (Con)
† Stringer, Graham (Blackley and Broughton) (Lab)
† Turner, Karl (Kingston upon Hull East) (Lab)
† Walker, Mr Charles (Broxbourne) (Con)
† Wright, Simon (Norwich South) (LD)
Nicholas Beech, Committee Clerk
† attended the Committee
Fifth Delegated Legislation Committee
Wednesday 15 October 2014
[Andrew Rosindell in the Chair]
Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority
2.30 pm
The Deputy Leader of the House of Commons (Tom Brake): I beg to move,
That the Committee has considered the motion, That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty, praying that Her Majesty will appoint Professor Sir Ian Kennedy to the office of Chair of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority from the end of his current term until 1 June 2016.
The motion appears in the name of my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House of Commons. It seeks the reappointment of Professor Sir Ian Kennedy to the office of chair of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority. The motion provides for an Address to be presented to Her Majesty for the reappointment, which would run from the expiry of the existing term of office until 1 June 2016.
The appointments process for the chair of IPSA is set out in paragraphs 1 to 4 of schedule 1 of the Parliamentary Standards Act 2009. Paragraph 2 of the schedule states that the appointment is made by Her Majesty, which underlines the independence of IPSA from the political process. The person named in the motion was selected on merit, on the basis of fair and open competition, and with the agreement of the Speaker’s Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority.
Mr Brian H. Donohoe (Central Ayrshire) (Lab): May I ask the Minister to expand on why it is such a short term?
Tom Brake: I am happy to do that. I will come to that later. If the hon. Gentleman is not satisfied with my response, he can intervene on me again.
The Speaker’s Committee for the IPSA is not a conventional committee of this House: it is a statutory committee, set up under the Parliamentary Standards Act, and its role and membership is determined by that statute, as amended by the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010. It has two key responsibilities: to consider the candidates proposed by the Speaker, following fair and open competition, for the post of chair and for membership of IPSA and to approve IPSA’s annual estimate of resources.
I would like to say a few words about the term of appointment. The new term will run for around 18 months until 1 June 2016. The IPSA board requested that shorter term of appointment to separate the appointment of future chairs from the cycle of general elections, which is now prescribed by the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011. The period around a general election is particularly busy for IPSA as the organisation has to plan for the smooth departure of some Members and have robust arrangements in place to help newly elected Members.
The Speaker’s Committee for the IPSA agreed to the board’s request. That committee also oversees the arrangements for the recruitment process and approves the proposed candidate before the motion can go before the House. Professor Sir Ian Kennedy was selected on the basis of fair and open competition and in accordance with the requirements of the legislation. The recruitment panel was chaired by Dame Denise Platt DBE, a member of the Committee on Standards in Public Life. The other members of the panel were the right honourable Sir Anthony May QC, nominated to the panel by the Lord Chief Justice; Martin Sinclair, Assistant Auditor General of the National Audit Office, nominated to the panel by the Comptroller and Auditor General; Peter Atkinson, former MP for Hexham, nominated to the panel by the Speaker; and Elizabeth McMeikan, lay member of SCIPSA.
The panel was assisted by a specialist recruitment agency, GatenbySanderson, under the terms of a framework agreement with the House of Commons. The recruitment process involved stages of online advertisement in The Times and via other websites, including Cabinet Office, IPSA and parliamentary websites, longlisting, shortlisting and interview. Following final interviews, the panel reported to the Speaker its recommendation for appointment.
Members will, of course, be familiar with Sir Ian, who has been chair of IPSA since its creation in 2009. It is true that relations between IPSA and the House have on occasion been difficult. That is hardly surprising, given the circumstances of its inception, but IPSA has been prepared to review and revise its position, and the new scheme is a considerable improvement over the organisation’s first proposals. Sir Ian has been a robust defender of the independence of the organisation and has taken it from a standing start to a position where the majority of Members, and their staff, would consider IPSA to be providing a credible and professional service.
It was the panel’s view that Sir Ian was the best candidate for this role. I urge Members to support the motion.
2.34 pm
Thomas Docherty (Dunfermline and West Fife) (Lab): I believe this is the first time I have been fortunate enough to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Rosindell. It is a real pleasure.
I do not intend to rehearse the policies of IPSA, such as the absurdity that one cannot travel to Gibraltar but one can travel to Madrid under the scheme. This is probably not the right place for that today. I simply want to say that Labour Members support the principle of splitting the timings, so that the chief executive and the chairman are not reappointed at the same time. It seems more sensible to have a rolling programme. For that reason, we support the motion.
I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Broxbourne, who chairs SCIPSA. He fits it into his other duties, including as Chair of the Procedure Committee and as a member of the Panel of Chairs. Obviously, Mr Speaker is the actual Chair of SCIPSA but the hon. Member for Broxbourne none the less does a skilful job.
I urge the Committee to support the reappointment.