Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the remarks by Lord Faulks on 10 March (HL Deb, col 646) about the creation of the national mental capacity forum, (1) whether an appointment has been made to the chair of that forum, and if not, when they expect to make such an appointment; (2) how soon after the appointment of the chair they expect the membership and composition of the forum to be discussed; (3) when they expect the process of determining membership to be completed; and (4) on what date they expect the forum to first meet.

The advert for the post of chair was advertised on the Cabinet Office’s Centre for Public Appointments website on the 24^th of March 2015, and is attached. The advert contains the duties of the chair.

We are at the final stages of the recruitment process and will announce the successful candidate after summer recess as we need to allow a 5 week period for the appropriate vetting process to be completed.

Discussions on the membership and composition of the forum will take place with the new chair immediately after the completion of an appointment. We expect the process of determining membership to be complete by the end of September and will hope to convene the first meeting of the forum in November.