Electoral Commission

Andrea Leadsom Excerpts

Tuesday 27th March 2018 General Committees

[The Leader of the House of Commons (Andrea Leadsom)]

I beg to move,

That the Committee has considered the motion, That an Humble Address be presented to Her Majesty, praying that Her Majesty will appoint Sarah Chambers as an Electoral Commissioner with effect from 31 March 2018 for the period ending 30 March 2022.

The Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission has produced its first report of 2018 in relation to the motion. It may help if I set out the key points for the record. Electoral commissioners are appointed under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000, as amended by the Political Parties and Elections Act 2009. Under the Act, the Speaker’s Committee has a responsibility to oversee the selection of candidates for appointment to the Electoral Commission. Commissioners are appointed for a fixed term, but the committee may recommend their reappointment where appropriate. The Speaker’s Committee is not regulated by the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments, but it has chosen to follow OCPA-recommended best practice in its supervision of appointments. The OCPA code of practice for appointments to public bodies, which was published in April 2012, provides that no reappointment may be made

“without a satisfactory performance appraisal”.

The Speaker’s Committee was required to recruit a new electoral commissioner to replace the outgoing electoral commissioner, Toby Hobman, whose term of office expired on 31 December 2017. Mr Hobman had been a commissioner since 2010, serving two terms. As is normal for such appointments, Mr Speaker appointed a panel, which conducted the shortlisting and interviewing of candidates. The panel was chaired by Joanna Place, chief operating officer at the Bank of England. The other panel members were Sir John Holmes, chair of the Electoral Commission, and the hon. Member for Houghton and Sunderland South (Bridget Phillipson), a member of the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission.

The independent panel initially recommended the appointment of Professor Sir Ian Kennedy to the position. That was endorsed by the Speaker’s Committee. However, the House declined to appoint Sir Ian as an electoral commissioner in January. In view of the House’s decision, the Speaker’s Committee therefore decided to recommend that Sarah Chambers be appointed as an electoral commissioner. Ms Chambers was the independent panel’s second-place candidate. She met all the essential criteria for the position, and was found to be very close in calibre to the initially recommended candidate.

Sarah Chambers currently serves on the board of the Competition and Markets Authority. She has a broad understanding of a wide range of complex organisations, political issues and regulatory frameworks, developed over many years working as an economic regulator and Government policy maker, and more recently as a board and committee member of a number of public organisations, including the Bar Standards Board. She was formerly a civil servant.

When the Speaker’s Committee reaches a decision on an appointment, statute requires that the Speaker consult the leaders of political parties represented at Westminster on the proposal. The statutory consultation provides an opportunity for the party leaders to comment, but they are not required to do so. No concerns or objections were received to Sarah Chambers’ proposed appointment as an electoral commissioner. If the appointment is made, Ms Chambers will serve as an electoral commissioner for four years.

I hope that the Committee, and ultimately the House, will support the appointment, and will wish the individual well as she takes up her new post.