3 The candidate
11. The Attorney General's preferred candidate, Mr
Kevin McGinty, is currently Deputy Legal Secretary and Director
(Operations) in the AGO. As will be seen from Mr McGinty's c.v.,
he has had a long career in the Office, including a period of
14 years advising the Attorney General in his role as Attorney
General for Northern Ireland. In his early career, Mr McGinty
spent five years as a practising member of the Bar and four years
as a Principal Crown Prosecutor in fraud cases.
12. At the pre-appointment hearing we asked Mr McGinty
about a wide range of matters bearing on his suitability for the
post, including on the challenges facing the Inspectorate, the
CPS and the SFO. He gave considered and knowledgeable responses
on all these points. He also showed a good understanding of the
role of Chief Inspector, and the relationships which it involves
with our Committee, Parliament, the Attorney General's Office,
the prosecution services, and other stakeholders.
13. An unusual and potentially troubling feature
of this appointment is the fact that
Mr McGinty, as a senior official in the Attorney General's Office,
had an involvement in the arrangements for the first recruitment
process, which did not produce a preferred candidate. He was involved
in initial discussions about the process and was the Department's
contact point for candidates to ask for further information about
the role. We needed to be confident there could be no question
of Mr McGinty having been able to influence the outcome of the
first process to enable him to put his name forward as part of
a re-run recruitment. On the basis of what Mr McGinty told us,
we are fully satisfied, first, that he had no influence on the
outcome of the first recruitment and, secondly, that he did not
in any case form an intention to apply for the post until after
that outcome had occurred. Mr McGinty pointed out that the process
had taken place under the auspices of the Commissioner for Public
Appointments, and with a strong and independent appointment panel.
14. We asked Mr McGinty more generally whether his
longstanding career in the Attorney General's Office, which has
included responsibility for superintendence of the CPS and the
SFO, could lead to a perception that, if appointed, he might be
unwilling to assert his independence or challenge his former colleagues
or those in the prosecution services with whom he had had extensive
professional contact. We were again satisfied by Mr McGinty's
responses on these points.
Conclusion
15.
We conclude
that Mr McGinty is fully suitable to be appointed as HM Chief
Inspector of the Crown Prosecution Service, and we wish him well
in carrying out his responsibilities.
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