House of Commons Commission (External Members)

Tuesday 2nd February 2016 Commons Chamber

19:18

[The Deputy Leader of the House of Commons (Dr Thérèse Coffey)]

I beg to move,

That the following appointments be made to the House of Commons Commission in pursuance of section 1(4) of the House of Commons Commission Act 2015 -

(1) Dame Janet Gaymer DBE QC (Hon.), until 30 September 2018; and

(2) Jane McCall, for a period of three years.

Towards the end of the last Parliament, the House of Commons Commission Act 2015 gave statutory effect to recommendations made by the Committee on Governance of the House of Commons, including that there should be two external members of the Commission. The Act said that those members should be appointed by resolution of the House and that a motion for a resolution appointing an external member may be made only with the agreement of the Commission. I am pleased to report that the Commission has agreed the terms of the motion tabled today.

The motion identifies two appointments, and I will briefly outline the two people identified and the process they went through. Dame Janet Gaymer was formerly an external member of the House of Commons Management Board. She has attended the Commission as an acting external member since January 2015. In September 2015, the Commission decided that she should be invited to continue to serve until September 2018, in line with best practice relating to the maximum terms of non-executive board members.

Jane McCall was recruited following a fair and open competition, including attendance at an interview panel comprising Mr Speaker, other hon. Members, the Clerk of the House and an external panel member, Joanna Place, in December 2015. The motion would have the effect of appointing Jane McCall for three years, the Commission having agreed that the term limit for external members should be a period of three years, with the possibility of two further extensions of one year each. The Commission agreed that both would make a valuable contribution to its work. Further biographical details and an explanation of the process, written by the Clerk of the House, have been made available to all Members by means of an explanatory memorandum accompanying the motion. I am sure that the whole House will want to welcome them both to their appointments, and we look forward to their making a contribution to the work of the House in future. I therefore commend this motion to the House.

19:19

[Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab)]

I do not intend to delay the House for very long either. I think the Deputy Leader of the House has got a bit of a cold and has been in bed all day, so we are very grateful to her for managing to struggle in this evening. The phrase in Wales is that she has been “bad in bed”—though not, I think, under the doctors in this case.

As a member of the Commission myself, I have obviously met the two members who are joining it. Dame Janet Gaymer is an eminent employment lawyer who has already brought a great deal of her experience and intelligence to many of our discussions about employment in this House, particularly that of staff of the House rather than staff of Members. She has been with us in all the time I have been on the Commission—which is not very long. Jane McCall is the deputy chief executive of Trafford Housing Trust, and she too brings a great deal of experience from a different world from that which most of us would necessarily know. So far, they have not shown any signs of going native in terms of their contributions to discussions. I think they are excellent appointments.

I would just make one other tiny point, which is that all six Members of the House of Commons who are members of the Commission are men, so it is quite a delight to have two women joining us as well. With that, I fully support the motion.

19:21

[Pete Wishart (Perth and North Perthshire) (SNP)]

I will be even briefer than the Deputy Leader of the House and the shadow Leader of the House in welcoming, on behalf of those on the SNP Benches, both these appointments—Dame Janet Gaymer, who has become a full-time member of the Commission, and Jane McCall. I am told by my hon. Friend the Member for Dundee East (Stewart Hosie), who is of course a distinguished member of the House of Commons Commission, that they will bring invaluable external expertise to its work, and this House will appreciate and respect that. I have to say that I was not familiar with these individuals, but having examined their CVs in great detail in the 10 minutes since I was notified of the fact that they were going to be appointed, I can say that the House has made a brave and courageous, but correct, decision in appointing them.

I echo the shadow Leader of the House in saying that it is welcome that we have two women on the Commission and acknowledging the fact that the elected members are all male. These two appointments will make a substantial contribution to the work of the Commission. I add my party’s support for this motion.

Question put and agreed to.