The Treasury Committee's scrutiny of appointments: government response
The government has published its response to the Treasury Committee report ‘The Treasury Committee’s scrutiny of appointments'.
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The Treasury Committee’s report, ‘The Treasury Committee’s scrutiny of appointments’, makes a series of recommendations on how the Committee should be involved in the appointments process for several posts at the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS), the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
During the passage through the House of Commons of the Bank of England and Financial Services Bill, these issues were discussed in the context of appointments to the Chief Executive of the FCA, with the process for appointments to this post attracting considerable attention during debates on the bill, both from members of the Treasury Committee and from other MPs. In response, at report stage on 19 April 2016, the government introduced an amendment to the process for appointing the Chief Executive of the FCA and announced an agreement between the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Chair of the Treasury Committee on how it would conduct future appointments.
After noting the government’s general approach to appointments, this response sets out the details of that amendment and agreement for the Chief Executive of the FCA. It then notes why the government believes it is not right to extend a similar arrangement to the Governor of the Bank of England or to the OTS, before responding to the remaining recommendations.