9 Business appointment rules
48. Business appointment rules govern the take-up
of jobs by former Ministers and Crown servants. In 2012, we conducted
an inquiry into whether the business appointment rules system
was working effectively. This built on the work of our predecessor
Committees.[59] In our
Report, we recommended that the Advisory Committee on Business
Appointments (ACOBA) should be abolished.[60]
In its place we recommended that the Government should legislate
to establish statutory ethics regulation with a code of conduct
and enforceable statutory penalties, overseen by an independent
ethics commissioner. Enforceable statutory penalties should be
introduced for failing to comply with the Commissioner's recommendations.
49. We were extremely disappointed by the lateness
of the Cabinet Office's response to the Report. We published this
Report in July 2012 but did not receive a response from the Government
until July 2014, two years later.[61]
We expect that we will receive Government Responses in the new
Parliament within two months of a report publication, in line
with the Cabinet Office's own guidance to Government departments.[62]
Our most recent Government responses have been received after
three and four months.[63]
50. In the Government response, the Cabinet Office
said it had undertaken a comprehensive review of the business
appointment rules in consultation with departments, and has agreed
a number of revisions to the current rules for Crown servants,
some of which reflect recommendations set out in the Committee's
Report.[64]
51. In December 2014, we held a pre-appointment hearing
with Baroness Browning, the Prime Minister's preferred candidate
for the post of Chair of ACOBA.[65]
We reiterated the need for reform and renewal of ACOBA but were
satisfied that Baroness Browning had the professional competence
and personal independence required for the post.
59 See, for example, Public Administration Select
Committee, First Report of Session 2008-09, Lobbying: Access and Influence in Whitehall,
HC 36-I, January 2009 Back
60
Public Administration Select Committee, Third Report of Session
2012-13, Business Appointment Rules, HC 404 [incorporating HC
1762-i-v, Session 2010-12], July 2012 Back
61
Public Administration Select Committee, Eleventh Report of Session
2013-14, The failure of the Cabinet Office to respond to our Report on the Business Appointment Rules, published July 2012,
HC 1156, March 2014 Back
62
Cabinet Office, Departmental evidence and response to select committees: guidance,
October 2014 Back
63
Public Administration Select Committee, Sixth Special Report of
Session 2014-15, Who's accountable? Relationships between Government and arm's-length bodies: Government Response to the Committee's First Report of Session 2014-15,
HC 1129, March 2015, and Public Administration Select Committee,
Fifth Special Report of Session 2013-14, Statistics and Open Data: Government Response to the Committee's Tenth Report of Session 2013-14,
HC 620, September 2014 Back
64
Public Administration Select Committee, First Special Report of
Session 2014-15, Business Appointment Rules: Government Response to the Committee's Third Report of Session 2012-13,
HC 563, July 2014 Back
65
Public Administration Select Committee, Second Report of Session
2014-15, Appointment of the Chair of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments,
HC 759, December 2014 Back
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