1 Introduction
1. The term in office of the incumbent Chief Inspector
of the Crown Prosecution Service, Mr Michael Fuller, concludes
at the end of March 2015, and the Attorney General's Office (AGO),
after consulting us, began a recruitment process for the next
Chief Inspector in September 2014. On 3 December 2014 the Attorney
General, Rt Hon Jeremy Wright MP, wrote to us to say that the
process had produced no preferred candidate for him to put forward,
and that the competition would be rerun. On 3 March 2015 he wrote
to us following this second recruitment process to say that his
preferred candidate was Mr Kevin McGinty. With his letter the
Attorney General enclosed a copy of the candidates' pack,
Mr McGinty's c.v., and a briefing for the Committee. We append
all this material to this Report, without Mr McGinty's personal
contact details.[1] The
Attorney General's Office also informed us that Mr McGinty had
not declared any conflict of interest which might affect his appointment
to the position of Chief Inspector.
2. In accordance with standard procedures, we held
a pre-appointment scrutiny hearing with Mr McGinty on 11 March.
The transcript of that hearing is published on our webpages.[2]
The conclusion of this Report sets out our view of Mr McGinty's
suitability for the post, on the basis of the information available
to us.
3. The post of Chief Inspector of the CPS is one
of seven which fall within the remit of the Justice Committee.
In 2010 we held a pre-appointment scrutiny hearing with Mr Fuller,
and endorsed his suitability for appointment. In relation to this
appointment process, we held an evidence session with Mr Fuller
the week before the pre-appointment hearing with Mr McGinty: this
session could be described as an exit interview, with the additional
purpose of obtaining Mr Fuller's view on issues which would need
to be dealt with by his successor. We wish to place on record
our appreciation for the very good work which Mr Fuller has done
during his time in post.
4. In the next section of this Report we first set
out the background to the Inspectorate and the role of the Chief
Inspector, and explain the recruitment process.
1 Appendices 1 to 4. Back
2 http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/justice-committee/one-off-sessions/parliament-2010/pre-appointment-of-new-hm-chief-inspector-of-cps-/
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