Gavin Freeguard analyses the latest data on the people appointed (and reappointed) to the boards of public bodies.
A few weeks ago, the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments (OCPA) published its annual statistics. OCPA ‘regulates the processes by which Ministers (including Welsh Ministers) make appointments to the boards of national and regional public bodies’, so the annual statistics show us how many appointments and reappointments were made over the year, and the characteristics – such as gender, ethnicity and political activity – of the appointees. OCPA kindly provides data back to 2000/01, though it would be even kinder if it were published in a spreadsheet, as well as a PDF report. In the year to 31 March 2015, OCPA regulated 1,888 appointments and reappointments (121 chairs and 1,767 members). Since the publication of the Public Appointments Diversity Strategy in December 2013, the presumption should be that reappointments are ‘the exception rather than the rule, to encourage greater diversity in new appointments’.
- Publisher
- Institute for Government