Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether Baroness Stowell was the preferred candidate of the independent Assessment Panel for the position of Chair of the Charity Commission.

Paragraph 3.1 of the Cabinet Office Governance Code for Public Appointments stipulates that Advisory Assessment Panels must not rank candidates unless specifically requested by the Minister. The Advisory Assessment Panel received no such request for this competition and candidates were assessed as either ‘appointable’ or ‘unappointable.’ Baroness Stowell was duly found appointable by the Panel.