Second Report: The appointment of Dr Stephen Brien as the Chair of the Social Security Advisory Committee

The Cabinet Office’s guidance clearly says that departments should engage early and openly with select committees to enable effective scrutiny of the Government’s choices for key senior public roles. This should include consulting on job descriptions, timetabling and advertising. The first we heard of the recruitment campaign for a new …

We recognise that the Secretary of State did not want to restart the recruitment process for this role, given how far advanced it was at the point we were notified. If this mistake happens again, we would expect the Department to start over. We note that there are two further …

We are satisfied that Dr Stephen Brien has the personal independence and professional competence to be Chair of the Social Security Advisory Committee. We wish him every success in his new role, and we look forward to working with him. Dr Brien identified in evidence to us some areas where …