GOVERNANCE & LEADERSHIP
Straw to chair Commons Governance Committee
The selection of a new House of Commons Clerk has led to major political upheaval in Westminster, with a new select committee set up to look at the issue of governance. PSE’s David Stevenson reports.
F
ormer foreign secretary Jack Straw MP is to chair a committee to consider
the governance of the House of Commons, following a row over the appointment of a new Chief Clerk.
During the inquiry, which will report back to the House on 12 January 2015, the committee will consider the case for splitting the current role of head clerk in two – separating management and procedural duties.
Currently, the Clerk of the House is also the chief executive of the House of Commons Service of some 2,000 people, and chairs the management board, consisting of six executive heads of department and two external non- executive members.
Conservative Jesse Norman, MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire, introduced the motion and said the debate arose because of “widespread concern among Members in all parts of the House that the process governing the appointment of the next Clerk of the House was seriously flawed”.
A panel of five MPs and one lay member, aided by headhunters Saxton Bampfylde, selected Carol Mills, the secretary of the Australian department of parliamentary services, to replace retiring Clerk Sir Robert Rogers to fill the £200,000-a-year post.
The decision was made following an open recruitment process overseen by Speaker John Bercow – the first time the job has been externally advertised.
However, some politicians voiced concerns about Mills’ lack of knowledge of Westminster procedures and the selection process. In response, Bercow announced a “pause” in the recruitment process. “In the meantime, the functions of the Clerk and chief executive will be distributed among members of the Management Board,” he added.
MPs on all sides of the House believe that, while Mills has strong management experience, she has less experience of overseeing parliamentary procedure and guarding MPs’ privileges.
Ill-founded process
Andrew Lansley, the former leader of the Commons, who was a member of the selection panel, accused Bercow of running an “ill-founded” process that ended with the appointment of Mills.
During the Backbench Business debate, he said he supported the motion to look at splitting the Clerk roles. He added that the commission should cancel the current process. In 2011, when Sir Robert was appointed, it was made clear the Clerk should have “detailed knowledge of the procedures and practices of this House”.
Lansley told MPs: “I think it is particularly regrettable that the Speaker sought expressly to water down the 2011 requirement in the job description that the Clerk should have ‘detailed knowledge’ of the procedures and practices of the House, seeking to replace the words
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detailed knowledge with ‘awareness’.” Open and fair
Shadow Commons leader Angela Eagle insisted the process had been “open and fair” and that the panel reached an “honest” decision by consensus.
“I was one of six members of the panel that reached a consensus agreement and suggested a name to the Prime Minister for recommendation to Her Majesty the Queen,” she added.
Eagle also welcomed changes to the appointment process, telling MPs she was glad that the previous system – whereby the Speaker would choose from two names handed to him by the outgoing Clerk – “has been left behind”.
Margaret Hodge, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, who was also a member of the selection panel, stated that the entire appointment process was “extremely thorough, totally professional and very open. Criticisms of the process are entirely unfounded”. She added that “it proved impossible to find a single individual capable of fulfilling both roles, but several of the members of the panel thought that Carol Mills was the only appointable candidate”. Lansley, however, countered that saying this “was not the view we took”.
Following the two-hour debate, it was decided that a House of Commons Governance Committee should look into the governance issue. The committee, chaired by Jack Straw, will consist of seven other backbench members – three Conservative, two Labour and one Liberal Democrat, together with one representative of the other parties represented in the House. Nominations will be forwarded to the chair by 14 October.
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