Public bodies should find it “quicker and more efficient” to recruit board members following the biggest changes to the Governance Code on Public Appointments in almost a decade, the Cabinet Office has said.
Reforms introduced in the latest version of the code, which went live on Thursday, aim to close “bureaucratic delays” that have slowed the process for organisations such as Ofcom, National Highways and the Civil Aviation Authority to recruit top talent.
There are currently more than 4,000 public appointees serving departments, agencies, arm’s-length bodies and institutions such as the BBC, the Arts Council and the Care Quality Commission as chairs and non-executive directors.
Just 13% of public-appointments recruitment campaigns concluded within the target of three months in 2023-24 – the most recent year for which data is available. The figure is a new low, and significantly down from the 50% recorded in 2019.
Commissioner for public appointments Sir William Shawcross has long argued that delays in the recruitment process cause public bodies to “lose a lot of good people” who don’t want to wait six months to find out if they have secured a particular role.
In January, Shawcross said evidence from some departments suggested that the need to consult with No.10 on many appointments, in particular, could delay the process by several weeks.
Under the revised governance code, ministers can choose to have less involvement in recruiting board members for public institutions in a move expected to reduce bureaucracy in relation to making appointments.
The Cabinet Office said that instead of needing to be consulted at every intermediate stage, ministers could opt out and leave work to officials, “speeding up the recruitment process and minimising the risk of losing high-quality candidates to other sectors”.
Despite the code changes, ministers will still be required to have some involvement in the public-appointments process. At a minimum they will need to agree the role specification and the final decision on each appointment.
Another change to the code includes provision for better use to be made of candidate “reserve lists”, doubling the length of time a candidate’s details can be retained.
The previous rules allowed a candidate’s details to be retained for 12 months. Now they can be kept for up to two years, making it easier for “quality candidates” to be placed into appropriate roles quickly, without the need to run a new hiring campaign.
A further change to the code adds a new “public servce” principle, designed to recognise that all appointments must be seen as an opportunity to ensure that exceptional people from across the United Kingdom are given the chance to utilise their skills and expertise to drive progress and deliver for the public.
Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said the revised code was key to making the public-appointments process more effective.
“Our public bodies work hard to serve the public every day,” he said. “It’s high time we shake things up and make it easier to get the best people into these organisations.
“The government is breaking down barriers to radically reform the state and deliver a decade of national renewal.”