Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether Lord Wharton was the highest scoring candidate for the role of Chair of the Office for Students following the Independent Advisory Assessment Panel's recruitment process.

Lord Wharton of Yarm was selected following a rigorous assessment process conducted in accordance with the Governance Code for Public Appointments. My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, was presented with a list of candidates who were deemed to be appointable to the role of Chair of the Office for Students and he made his choice from that list.

The Governance Code for Public Appointments states at section 3.1: ‘At the end of the process, Ministers should be provided with a choice of appointable candidates. Panels must not rank candidates unless the Minister has specifically asked for this. Ministers may choose not to appoint any of the candidates and re-run the competition.’ In accordance with the Code, in this competition the candidates deemed to be appointable were not ranked.

Following his selection as the preferred candidate by the Secretary of State for Education, Lord Wharton faced a pre-appointment hearing with the Education Select Committee, which endorsed Lord Wharton’s appointment as Chair.

We will not publish the Independent Advisory Assessment Panel’s report as it contains details of peoples’ performances at interview, making them identifiable.