List of MPs in the 2019 Parliament who are related to current or former Members of Parliament.
Documents to download
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Pre-appointment hearings (873 KB, PDF)
Since June 2008 House of Commons select committees have routinely held pre-appointment hearings for a number of public appointments. The current system of pre-appointment hearings was introduced in 2008 as part of the Government of Britain reforms led by the then Prime Minister, Gordon Brown.
Pre-appointment hearings to date
There were a total of 96 pre-appointment hearings between July 2007 and December 2017.
Of these, there were five occasions where a committee made a negative assessment of the Government’s preferred candidate. For three of these, the appointment went ahead in any case (the Children’s Commissioner, the Director of the Office for Fair Access and HM Chief Inspector, Office for Standards in Education). In one case, the appointment did not go ahead (Her Majesty’s Inspector of Probation). In another, the candidate withdrew from the appointment process after a negative report was issued by the select committee (Chair of Monitor).
There have also been situations where committees have had an impact on an appointment without producing a negative assessment of a candidate.
Calls for changes to the process
There have been some calls for changes to the pre-appointment hearings process, including suggestions that there should be greater parliamentary involvement in a small number of appointments.
Background information
For background information, international comparisons and a detailed discussion of the issues raised by the introduction of pre-appointment hearings, see Library Research Paper 08/39 Parliamentary Involvement in Public Appointments.
Related Links
Documents to download
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Pre-appointment hearings (873 KB, PDF)
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This Insight explores the key changes to parliamentary procedures caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
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The coronavirus timeline sets out the Commons’ response to the pandemic, including key ‘lock down’ dates and changes to the way parliamentarians worked. It includes links to the relevant debates in Hansard, Speaker’s Statements, Procedure Committee reports, the ‘Members’ Guide to hybrid proceedings’ and correspondence on proceedings during the pandemic.
