Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, under what formal status Baroness Harding heads NHS Test and Trace programme in the absence of a formal ministerial or special advisor role.
Ministers frequently make appointments to a wide variety of roles governed by a huge variety of arrangements and have done over successive administrations.
There is no set process for these appointments but in making these appointments – which are often of a type referred to as ‘direct appointments’ – general public law principles apply.
Appointees are expected to adhere to the Nolan Principles.