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HC 523 - The Future of the Union, Part One: English Votes for English Laws
It is highly regrettable that the 1997 Parliament voted to proceed with devolution to Scotland and Wales without proper consideration being given to the well rehearsed West Lothian Question. It was a failure to do so then that has led to the difficulties that the present Government is now seeking to address through EVEL. As devolution from the UK level to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland continues to develop, there is a growing body of evidence that suggests an increasing impatience with the constitutional anomalies to which this gives rise in England. This was amplified during the 2015 General Election campaign, in which the Conservatives focused voters' minds on the possibility of SNP ...
Pre-appointment hearing for the dual post of First Civil Service Commissioner and Commissioner for Public Appointments
On 21 July 2010, the Minister for the Cabinet Office, Rt Hon Francis Maude MP, notified the Committee that he planned to recruit a single individual for separate posts of First Civil Service Commissioner and Commissioner for Public Appointments. Both posts fall vacant on 31 December 2010. Sir David Normington KCB was recommended for both posts and a pre-appointment hearing was held. The Committee endorsed the appointment however there were serious concerns about the appointment of a senior civil person to this post and the lack of consultation surrounding the proposal to combine the two roles
Cabinet manual
This report from the Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) responds to the Government's consultation on the Draft Cabinet Manual. PASC welcomes the Manual, and dismisses the notion that it represents the start of a written constitution. Instead it recommends a number of improvements to ensure it meets its primary purpose as a comprehensive and authoritative guide to government practice for ministers and civil servants. The Committee recommends that the Cabinet Manual should be clear about its aim; be fully and comprehensively referenced; and distinguish more clearly the legal or other status of the information. As such PASC also suggests that the name Cabinet Manual is potentially misleading and should be changed to better reflect its contents and objectives.
More Complains Please! - HC 229
How complaints are handled determines the quality of the relationship between consumers and public services. The best performing organisations welcome complaints as a way of engaging consumers. A failure to recognise the importance of complaints leads to insufficient redress for the individual, limits the impact that complaints have in improving services, and alienates the public. In some parts of public services, there are encouraging signs of increased attention to good complaints handling. However, Government as a whole cannot be said to be complying with best practice in complaints handling or adapting to the needs and expectations of today's citizen. Success depends on the right leaders...
HC 110 - Who's Accountable? Relationships Between Government And Arm's-Length Bodies
The controversy around the Government's handling of flooding last winter showed that arm's-length Government is confused and opaque. Organisational forms and names are inconsistent. Most public bodies answer to Ministers but some are directly accountable to Parliament. There is no agreement on how many types of body exist. There are overlaps and blurring between categories. Accountability arrangements and reforms so far have been ad hoc. The Government has reviewed non-departmental public bodies, but it should review all forms of arm's-length Government, including executive agencies and non-ministerial departments. The Government should establish a clear taxonomy of public bodies: constituti...
Too Soon to Scrap the Census - HC 1090
At the start of this Parliament, the Minister for the Cabinet Office indicated the ten-yearly census should be axed and the 2011 census should be the last. But in this report the Public Administration Select Committee urges the government not to scrap the 2021 census. Good figures on the people in the country are of fundamental importance to the statistical system, policy makers and society more widely, and the ten-yearly census gives detailed information on small areas. This report follows the National Statistician's announcement in March 2014 that she recommends that Government keep the Census in 2021, but that it should be conducted largely online, and that the Government should make much...
HC 432 - Follow-up to PHSO Report: Dying without dignity
Failings in the care provided to people as they approach the end of their life can result in needless pain and suffering. In Dying without dignity, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (http://www.ombudsman.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/32167/Dying_without_dignity_report.pdf) identified systemic issues affecting the quality and delivery of end of life care and used case studies to show how patients - and those close to them -had been affected by poor care. We welcome the report, which concluded that the NHS needed to improve in a number of areas and recommended that the report's findings be used to inform a new approach to end of life care. Witnesses told us that they were awa...
Appointment of the Chair of the UK Statistics Authority
Incorporating HC 1261-i and HC 1634-i
House of Commons - Public Administration Select Committee (PASC): Latest Proposals for Ministerial Involvement in Permanent Security Appointments: PASC's Recommendations - HC 1041
At present the Prime Minister can only veto a candidate selected on merit. But new proposals put forward by the Civil Service Commission would give the Prime Minister the power to choose between two candidates considered equally well qualified for the role. This report follows a long-running debate between the Civil Service Commission and the Government on the appointment of lead permanent secretaries - the most senior civil servant in a department. In January 2014 the Civil Service Commission put out to consultation two proposals on expanding ministerial influence on the recruitment process. PASC has concluded that the first option - to formalise the recruitment panel's powers to seek, and take into account, the view of the relevant minister during the appointment process - should be adopted. The Committee has warned that the adoption of the Commission's second option - allowing the Prime Minster or Secretary of State to effectively appoint a permanent secretary by choosing between two candidates 'of equivalent merit' risks the appearance that the choice will be made on grounds other than merit alone
House of Commons - Public Administration Select Committee (PASC): The Failure of the Cabinet Office to Respond to our Report on the Business Appointment Rules, Published July 2012 - HC 1156
There has been concern in the last few years that former Ministers and Crown Servants have inappropriately used knowledge they gained in Government to seek new employment in other sectors. Over two years ago the Committee launched an inquiry to examine the effectiveness of the Business Appointment Rules in ensuring propriety in the future employment of former Ministers and senior Crown servants; and to consider the potential of the Big Society agenda to increase traffic through the "revolving door" between the public sector and business and the voluntary sector. The report "The Business Appointment Rules" was published on 17 July 2012. Some twenty months later, the Government has not respond...
