House of Commons - Public Administration Select Committee (PASC): Latest Proposals for Ministerial Involvement in Permanent Security Appointments: PASC's Recommendations - HC 1041 PDF Download

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Public Administration Select Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215068880
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 20

View

Book Description
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

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Public Administration Select Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215061751
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 364

View

Book Description
The Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) has concluded a year-long inquiry into the future of the Civil Service with only one recommendation: that Parliament should establish a Joint Committee of both Houses to sit as a Commission on the future of the Civil Service. It should be constituted within the next few months and report before the end of the Parliament with a comprehensive change programme for Whitehall with a timetable to be implemented over the lifetime of the next Parliament. The Report considers the increased tensions between ministers and officials which have become widely reported, and places the problems in Whitehall in a wider context of a Civil Service built on the Northcote-Trevelyan settlement established in 1853 and the Haldane principles of ministerial accountability set out in 1919. The government's Civil Service Reform Plan lacks strategic coherence and clear leadership from a united team of ministers and officials. The Northcote-Trevelyan Civil Service remains the most effective way of supporting the democratically elected Government and future administrations in the UK. Divided leadership and confused accountabilities in Whitehall have led to problems: a low level of engagement amongst civil servants in some departments and agencies, and a general lack of trust and openness; the Civil Service exhibits the key characteristics of a failing organisation with the leadership are in denial about the scale of the challenge they face. There is a persistent lack of key skills and capabilities across Whitehall and an unacceptably high level of churn of lead officials, which is incompatible with good government.

Author: Great Britain: Department of Health
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780101829021
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 32

View

Book Description
Government response to HC 796-I, session 2010-11 (ISBN 9780215562050).

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Public Administration Select Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215070517
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 20

View

Book Description
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 responded to the Report. The Committee has raised this matter both through correspondence with the Rt Hon Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office, and by way of Parliamentary Questions. The Committee views the Government failure to respond to a Select Committee Report as unacceptable behaviour and in this instance as obstructive and secretive, both showing a cavalier attitude in its responsibilities towards Parliament and thereby deliberately impeding a cross-party scrutiny of Government policy in this area.

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Health Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215050885
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 82

View

Book Description
This year's accountability hearings focused on three areas of particular interest: the arrangements for revalidation of doctors, which are to commence on 3 December 2012, and associated matters such as patient involvement and examination of the language competence of doctors; the professional leadership activity undertaken by the GMC in the last year; and the regulation activity undertaken by the GMC, including the establishment of the Medical Practitioner Tribunal Service. The Council is performing effectively in its two roles of defining and applying standards for the medical profession and providing a focus of professional leadership. The outcome of the Law Commission's consultation on professional regulation in the health and care sector, which proposed a formal role for the Health Committee in the accountability structures, is still awaited. Specific concerns included that whilst there has been some progress on the amendment of domestic legislation which restricts the language testing of doctors this is no substitute for the revision of the European legislation which presently prohibits language testing of doctors on a national basis. There have also been continued upward trends in complaints against doctors received by the GMC, and the Committee expects to examine in 2013 the outcomes of further research the GMC has commissioned into these trends. The Committee feels that the present 15-month target for the GMC to complete 90% of its fitness to practise cases should be lowered to 12 months. The Committee also welcomes proposed legislation to enable the GMC's investigatory arm to appeal against decisions made by the MPTS where the outcome of a hearing is disputed

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Health Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215046857
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 172

View

Book Description
The main focus of the alcohol strategy is binge drinking and its consequences for anti-social behaviour. Those are important issues, but the health impact of chronic alcohol misuse is also significant and greater emphasis needs to be placed on addressing that impact. In order to be effective the Strategy needs some clearer objectives to provide a framework for both policy judgements and accountability. The Committee recommends that Public Health England should have a central role in developing these objectives, and linking them to local strategies in every area across the country. The Committee supports the decision to introduce a minimum unit price for alcohol, but a transparent process must be put in place in order to ensure that the price level is evidence-based and is monitored to assess its effectiveness. The Committee concludes that: the Responsibility Deal is intrinsic to responsible corporate citizenship, but it is not a substitute for Government policy; the alcohol industry needs to acknowledge that its advertising messages do have an effect on attitudes if it wishes to be seen as a serious committed partner in the Responsibility; rules on alcohol advertising should be re-examined to reduce the likelihood of adverts influencing young people under 18; Public Health England should undertake an evaluation of the effectiveness of the Responsibility Deal and should commission a study into the principles and implications of introducing the French Loi Evin; the Department of Health's work on which models of treatment provision are most effective in addressing the health issues caused by alcohol abuse is welcome

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Public Administration Select Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 0215071670
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 36

View

Book Description
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 greater use of the data which it already holds in order to improve the accuracy of population estimates. The Committee supports the recommendation from the National Statistician, but urges the Office for National Statistics to do much more to make the best use of the data which the Government already collects, for example through the Department for Work and Pensions, HM Revenue and Customs and the Department of Health. The Committee says that the Office for National Statistics' work on the future of the Census has, to date, been limited, and recommends that the Office for National Statistics now sets out a much more ambitious vision for the use of this data to provide rich and valuable population statistics.

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Public Administration Select Committee
Publisher: Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215058706
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 92

View

Book Description
In this report the Public Administration Select Committee recommends that departmental press officers and government statistics staff should work together much more closely to ensure that press releases give an accurate and meaningful picture of the truth behind the figures. Government statistics press releases do not always give a true and fair picture of the story behind the statistics, sometimes going too far to create a newsworthy headline. And the Committee says the ways that statistics are presented can be a challenge even for expert users. The lay user is left confused and disengaged. The Office for National Statistics website makes figures hard to find and statistics are often presented in a confusing way, for example, in formats which are not easily understandable. Other recommendations include: the UK Statistics Authority should work proactively to bring together and clearly present key statistics, from various sources, around common themes or events, such as elections and referendums, as well as broader topics such as the labour market and economic trends; the ONS website must be improved; the Statistics Authority should find more creative ways of communicating statistics, for example, through interactive guides; publication of more raw data in machine-readable format for experts who want the full results, not just the edited highlights presented in releases for a mass audience; government statisticians produce thousands of pieces of data on demand, known as 'ad hoc statistics' and these should be published proactively, rather than simply in reaction to requests.

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Public Administration Select Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215054463
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 94

View

Book Description
In this report the Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) concludes that, despite the positive steps implemented by the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 (the Act), there remain issues and concerns about the way government statistics are produced and disseminated which remain a genuine risk to public confidence in the statistical system and must be addressed. The Act was intended to ensure that statistics are produced to the highest professional standards and that effective governance structures are in place to protect transparency and accountability and the Committee found the Act had helped to improve the operation of the statistical system. However, the Act needs to have greater clarity and transparency in the way it operates and in the functioning of the UK Statistics Authority (the Statistics Authority). Those who regulate the quality of National Statistics are in the same organisation as those officials who produce data: the two groups should have a clear separation in practice, but this is hard to demonstrate when they work in the same building and share support services. It is also not appropriate that ministers should have lengthy prior access to certain statistics but other interested parties do not. The Statistics Authority does not seem to have sufficient control over the quality and integrity of the different data sets and statistical products produced by departments and their agencies. Planning and improving data access both within Government and for users outside Government should be given greater attention by the Statistics Authority, as well as by Government departments.

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Health Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215046062
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 32

View

Book Description
In February 2012 the Health Committee undertook an inquiry into 'PIP Breast implants and regulation of cosmetic interventions' (HC 1816, 16th report session 2010-12, ISBN 9780215043474). The Government response to that report (Cm. 8351, ISBN 9780101835121) is not commented upon here. This report follows on from the earlier conclusion that all possible evidence, including patient-reported experiences, must be gathered and analysed in order to inform the policy response to the issue. The timescale of the earlier inquiry did not allow evidence to be taken directly from those women affected. The Committee therefore established a web forum where women with PIP implants could explain how they had learned about the issues; what they had been told about their implants when they were provided; their experiences with their private providers once they had discovered they had PIP implants; and the support they received privately or from the NHS in having the implants removed or replaced. The web forum was open for comments during May 2012. By the time the forum closed to new comments on 31 may 2012, 194 women had registered with the forum and left 279 posts. By 24 June 2012 the forum had received over 4, 230 page views. This report summarises the responses received on the forum.