The government’s preferred candidate for the Charity Commission chair role has been rejected by the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee due to serious concerns over the selection process.
While the committee of ministers said it had no concerns over the candidate, Orlando Fraser, as an individual, it did have serious concerns over how he was selected.
In its report, the committee said that, like other recent public appointments by DCMS, the process had been drawn out and subject to allegations of political interference. It expressed surprise that ‘even after the resignation of Martin Thomas, the Department did not learn from their mistakes and re-run the application.’
Thomas stepped down almost immediately after being appointed last year and before his formal start date after it emerged that he had been the subject of misconduct allegations at a charity. Fraser was in the original pool of candidates, along with Thomas.
The commitee also called DCMS’s selection ‘yet another archetypal and unimaginative choice’ from what it called ‘a limited shortlist’ that contained one woman and one candidate from a BAME background.
As such, it sees Fraser’s selection as ‘demonstrative of the Department’s lack of care, attention, and commitment to quality in this important public appointment.’
As a result, the committee report says, while it recognises Mr Fraser’s potential to do the job, the committee does not formally endorse his selection as Chair of the Charity Commission.
Committee recommendations
It recommends that the government looks again at the process of pre-appointments to restore some of the trust and respect for process, and restores powers to the Appointment Commissioner that were removed after the Grimstone Review of 2016. The committee also calls for greater Ministerial discipline in removing themselves from public speculation about candidates prior to their role in selecting a preferred candidate.
NCVO response
Responding to the news, NCVO’s Head of Networks and Influencing Alex Farrow, said:
“We have argued for a long time that parliament needs to be central to the process of appointing the Chair of the Charity Commission. The government should carefully consider the implications of continuing to appoint a candidate who does not have the backing of parliament.
“We agree that Orlando Fraser has the experience and understanding of the sector required to do the job, and we were pleased that he stressed the importance of the independence of the Commission to the committee.”
“We believe it was a mistake not to rerun the appointment process. This would have provided confidence in the process and enabled a more diverse and representative shortlist to have been developed.”
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