Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he considered making the Government Lead Non-Executive Director a regulated public appointment.

The most recent Public Appointments Order in Council, which sets out all regulated public appointments, was made at Privy Council on 15 November 2023. The Government Lead Non-Executive was not included at that time or any time prior. Consideration of whether a role should be regulated, including whether it should be a significant appointment or subject to pre-appointment scrutiny, should happen at the point the role is created (in this case 2010), and mechanisms exist to make such changes outside of the periodic process for updating the Order in Council and the published lists.

The most recent appointment of the Government Lead Non-Executive in January 2025 was made via an open and transparent recruitment process. This was the first time this appointment has been done in this way. All prior appointments were made directly by the Prime Minister of the day without competition.